Panthera
by Nekoet
Summary: Nekos are very rare in the World, and amazingly enough, Luffy and Zoro are one of them. They are nekos with dreams and ambitions, driven by vows and memories that constantly beg them to move forward. They enter a world where they will be known and discovered, but above that, a world where they are capable of ruling.
1. Chapter 1: Starting

Chapter 1: Starting

 **Just like the end note, Yep. I really am combining them.**

 **Now, each chapter will be at least more than 10,000 words. Yay.**

The raven haired boy stood confidently on top of the ship's figurehead, overlooking everyone on the forecastle deck. His tail wagged aggravated along with the smooth waves calmly crashing onto the shore, his ears perked high along with his pose. The flag of the ship waved proudly, showing off the pirate skull marked on it.

"Oi! What are you doing, Luffy?" One of the pirates called out, getting a huff as response from the young boy.

"I'm not joking this time! I've had enough!" He raised a dagger high above his head as if to prove something serious, "I'll prove it for you all to see!" His ears perked impossibly even higher than the dagger, as if his whole body wanted to show off just what it was capable of, and that it could handle some pain.

A man wearing a straw hat, concealing most of his flaming red hair, raised his fist and started to laugh before saying, "Ha ha ha! Go for it! Let's see what you're gonna do!" Another backed up his laughter by saying that the young boy was going to do something funny again.

Luffy stared at the man then at everyone else. His confident expression then changed to a nervous one, suddenly realizing that his idea wasn't going to end well. He lifted the dagger in front of his face, gaining a few shocked faces from some people on the ship. He then shifted the dagger underneath his left eye and set the edge right above his cheek. Quickly, he poked the dagger into his skin so deep that a large cut had revealed itself underneath all the blood.

He held the dagger inside him not even for half a second before he speed-defying pulled it out and screamed in pain, the voices of the pirates yelling at him for being an idiot and wondering why he had done such a thing were the least of his concerns at that moment. He continued to scream and yell out in pain, wanting desperately for the pain to stop. Finally, when he was slowly getting used to the pain, he finally heard all the pirates simultaneously yell out 'idiot!'

●ω●

"Let's drink up and celebrate! To Luffy's craziness and to our greatness!" Everyone who were at the pirate ship were now raising sake cups and laughing like there was no tomorrow, many ending up drunk after the first two cups they got.

"Ah… It didn't hurt one bit…" The neko said, his large eye threatening to tear up once more, a bandage now over the cut.

"Liar! Don't do anything so stupid again!" The straw hat-wearing man, Shanks, yelled at him, not done calling him an idiot, unlike the others who were already celebrating.

Luffy looked at the man and a large smile appeared on the neko's face. "I'm not afraid of pain at all! Next time bring me out to sea! I want to be a pirate too!" He said as if the event before really had done nothing to affect him.

After he had said that, Shanks once again began to laugh and held up a spoon ready to eat something. He continued to tease the neko about how he could never be a pirate and that his incapability to swim is a pirate's greatest weakness. Luffy, being the stubborn kid he was, stood up from his stool and faced Shanks with an angered expression. "As long as I stay onboard the ship, I'll be fine! Besides, my fighting is pretty good too!" He then punched the air and smirked, "I've rigorously trained before! My punch is as strong as pistol fire!" His tail twitched at his last comment, as if it was making fun of what the rest of its body was doing.

"A pistol?" Shanks asked while resting his head on his hand, "Wow… really?" He continued to tease in a bored tone, much to the neko's displeasure.

"What kind of tone is that!?" he couldn't help but yell out, he ears and tail reacting much the same way by twitching and loudly swooshing the air.

Suddenly, a group of pirates, obviously drunk but happy, continued to encourage him by saying that the life of a pirate was like no other and that it was the best way to have fun and seek adventure, the last one finishing off by saying that nothing was better than freedom, much to Luffy's amusement and encouragement. He couldn't help but stare in awe at what they were saying. His face clearly read something that meant that he was convinced.

His inspiration was long-lived though, all by a certain red head. "Don't give him these dumb ideas, guys." He said with a bored face and the spoon from before held between his teeth.

One man looked from over his shoulder on his chair and smirked kindly, asking his captain if they could take Luffy just once, others joining in on the invitation as well. Luffy jumped down from his chair and held his arms confidently close to his chest before also joining in on his own invitation, yelling out a 'yeah!' Shanks turned to look back at the counter and sighed annoyed but with a hint of teasing recognition. "Well, then next time one of you get off the ship and let him take your place."

With only that sentence, everyone who had tried to convince their captain had gleefully hopped back to each of their seats. "We've said enough! Let's drink!" Lucky Roo finished. Luffy yelled at the pirates, asking what kind of friends they were. He returned to his stool next to Shanks and sighed.

Shanks looked a Luffy and pointed his spoon at him with a kind smile. "The most important thing is that you're still too young. Wait at least another ten years and I'll reconsider taking you out to sea."

Luffy glared at the man as he gritted his teeth. His ears laid back and his tail bristled a bit. "Darn it Shanks! Let me tell you! I'm not a kid anymore!" Smoke was quite literally coming out of his pores.

Shanks set down his spoon and rested his hand on the counter and raised the other in a gesturing manner. "Don't be mad. Here, drink some juice." He passed down a smaller cup than the others filled with juice to Luffy who gladly took it and replied him with a thanks. Right after Luffy had only taken his first sips, Shanks slapped his fist onto the counter and burst into a loud fit of laughter that the neko was sure was almost impossible to stop. "You really are a kid! How funny!"

"What a dirty trick!" The neko tried to counter but the red head wouldn't have any of it, mostly because his words were muted by his laughter.

Luffy hopped off the stool and, regardless of the event prior, he took the glass of juice with him. "Hmph! I'm so tired! I even cut myself today and he still won't agree!" He continued to walk and ran into Ben.

"Luffy, you should try to understand captain's feelings." He said lighting his long but thin cigarette. Luffy looked at the tall man and repeated the statement in the form of a question, still holding the beer jug filled with juice. "Yes… after all, he is our leader. He knows that being a pirate is interesting, but he also knows that a pirate's life is hard and very dangerous." Luffy's ears twitched at the last statement, though he showed no change in emotion, only curiosity.

"Do you understand? He doesn't purposely tease your ambitions of being a pirate." Ben said.

"I don't understand! Shanks just takes me for an idiot!" When he finished his sentence, he looked over at Shanks who hid behind his fist in a teasing way and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, especially Luffy.

"Can't swim!" he teased.

"See!" Luffy pointed to Shanks and looked at Ben, who had a dumbstruck expression.

"Captain, you seem to be happy as always." A kind looking woman walked in holding a large barrel in her grasps walked in from behind the bar.

"Yep. Making fun of him is my joy." Shanks said, snickering.

"Luffy grew an annoyed look and pointed at Shanks while looking at Ben, "He is **really** happy."

His attention was then caught by the woman carrying the barrel who had offered him something to eat. Her ears were gently perked, protruding from under her kerchief. The tip of her tail was slightly visible from under her long skirt, which was an amusing dark green color. "OK! I'll pay you with my treasure!" Luffy said happily to the girl named Makino.

Shanks peered at Luffy who was now holding a knife and a fork and smirked, "What treasure? You're lying again."

Luffy looked at Shanks and banged his silverware on the counter. "No! I'm definitely gonna be a pirate. I'll pay Makino with the treasure I find!" He finished. Makino laughed and turned to go prepare the food. "I'll be waiting!" She said in her all-too cheerful and kind voice. Luffy grinned and giggled as well, his tail wagging pleasantly.

Once Luffy was given his food, he turned to Shanks and while eating a rather large piece of steak and asked, "How long are you gonna stay?"

Shanks stopped eating as well and looked at Luffy with a smile, somewhat forced, "Well… it's almost been a year since we used this town as our base. I plan on setting sail a couple more times then we'll leave this town and head north." Luffy finally managed to eat a chunk of the meat, all while listening.

"A couple of times…" He said mostly to himself. "I'll learn how to swim by then!" He said turning towards Shanks, who had wished him good luck.

After the conversation, not a second after, Luffy was surprised by the sudden door breaking from its hinges and ending up on the floor in the middle of the bar. "Excuse me!" The voice was loud, too loud for both Luffy and Makino's neko ears. As soon as they entered, Makino immediately pushed her kerchief over her neko ears and Shanks quickly snatched his hat and set it on Luffy's head as the neko quickly stuck in his tail in his pants. He then turned to Luffy who was staring at him with wide eyes and slightly glared at him, then he whispered, "That's the only time I'm letting you wear my hat." He then looked away from Luffy and stared back at the 'guests'.

"Hehe… so this is what pirates look like, huh?" He sneered, "This is the first time I've seen pirates. They look pretty dumb to me."

After Shanks had set his straw hat on Luffy's head, the neko had seen a small chest containing a strange looking dessert. Luffy had grabbed it and before the man had reached the counter, he had already started eating the purple treat. He then changed his attention to the man who had set his hand on the counter next to Shanks who was about to open a sake bottle. "We are bandits. We're not here to cause trouble. We just wanna buy ten barrels of sake." The leader said with a troublesome tone.

Makino stared at the man as a thin layer of sweat damped her face. "I'm so sorry, but we are out of sake."

The bandit looked at the pirate crew, "Oh? That's strange, then what are they drinking? Water?"

"It's sake. But that was the last of our stock." Luffy stared at Makino. Just by doing so, he could tell how much stress she was going through every passing second.

Shanks looked at the bandit and smiled kindly, but the bandit leader didn't take it that way. "I'm sorry, looks like we've finished all the sake here. Sorry about that. If you don't mind, take the last bottle." He lifted the bottle he was about to open and lifted it towards the leader. Luffy saw the anger grow on the man's face so he instinctively jumped off his chair, holding the hat on his head when he did so. He covered himself with his free hand and looked away when suddenly there was a loud shatter of glass. The next second, drops of beer had landed on the floor but many shards of glass had landed everywhere.

When Luffy looked up, he saw Shanks with his head down completely soaked in sake. He dropped his jaw at the sight, still eating the dessert.

"Just who do you think I am? Don't take me so lightly. One bottle is not enough!" The bandit said with his fist squeezed tight soaked in sake, implying he had crushed the bottle with his hand only.

Shanks had ignored him and a frown grew on his face. "Oh no. Now the floor is all wet."

The bandit lifted a piece of paper and when Luffy took a peek at it, he noticed it was a bounty of the bandit leader. "See this? My head is worth eight million beli. I'm one of the prime fugitives here, and I've killed fifty-six people before, you cocky bastard." He looked down at Shanks with a deathly glare, but it didn't seem to faze him. "Now that you know who I am, don't mess with us ever again. After all, mountain bandits and sea pirates don't mingle well."

Shanks picked up the lower broken piece of the sake bottle, a soft clink emitting from him picking it up. He then hopped off his stool and crouched down and continued to pick up more of the glass shards. "Sorry about that, Makino. Do you have a mop?" He asked looking slightly to his side.

"Ah… It's alright. I'll clean it up!" She replied with full honesty, concealing her tail even better from underneath her long skirt.

The bandit leader unsheathed his sword and without warning, he slashed at all the plates and bottles from the counter, most of it landing on Shanks and some glass shards fell on Luffy, though he was protected by the straw hat he was wearing. Although it wasn't visible, Luffy's tail had puffed up from underneath his shorts and his eyes were threatening to spill again. "Well, it seems like you really enjoy cleaning. Now you can enjoy it even more." He then turned around and sheathed his sword. "Hmmph. Later, you bunch of chickens." He said, finally leaving.

Luffy walked over to Shanks and returned the hat to him, revealing his ears. He also removed his tail from underneath his shorts. The red head then set it on his head as Makino asked if he was okay, kneeling to his level, who had already let her ears feel the air. Suddenly, the whole bar burst into laughter, the pirates making fun of their captain. Soon enough, he began laughing too, removing his hat and holding it in his hand.

Having enough, Luffy clutched his hand into a fist and his ears and tails immediately reacted. His black ears laid back on his head as his tail began to twitch and wag uncontrollably. "Why are you laughing?!" Immediately, everyone in the bar who had been laughing silenced themselves. "That was disgraceful! Why didn't you fight him?! So what if they have more people?! Who laughs after getting picked on? You're not a man, and not a pirate either!" He was screaming now and by the time he finished, he was huffing out the extra air.

Shanks looked at him with a surprised expression and smiled, once again setting his straw hat on his head. "Look, I know how you feel, but it's just a bottle of sake. There's nothing to get worked up about."

Luffy huffed once more before he started to walk away from the red headed man. "I don't want to see you again, coward!"

Before he could leave, though, Shanks grabbed his arm and let out a small chuckle, "Oh, c'mon. Don't go, Luffy…"

Before Shanks could finish, Luffy felt his arm get abnormally long and he could hear the many hisses of people spitting out their drink. The neko knew something was up and his curiosity grew bigger when he heard everyone gape at something, making uncertain noises that obviously meant something. He then looked back and his jaw immediately dropped.

"His arm… it's stretching!" Shanks yelled. "That's…!"

"No way… you…" Others joined in.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Luffy's tail puffed up to the maximum and he could feel his scream rushing out of his mouth. "AAAH!"

Before, Luffy knew it, various events had happened in a single minute, all ranging from people screaming to Lucky Roo opening the chest and drawing an exact replica of the dessert Luffy had ate before to Shanks explaining to Luffy what devil fruits were and how they affected the user's body.

"Whoever eats it will turn into a rubber man and will never be able to swim!" Shanks finally finished.

"WHAAAAAAAAT! YOU'RE KIDDING RIIIIIIGHT?!" At this point, Luffy's jaw had completely dropped onto the ground, his rubber body now adding more stretch to it.

"You idiot!" Shanks and the rest of the crew yelled.

●ω●

The neko boy ran through the dirt pathways, many windmills turning, firmly planted on the ground. His ears and tail flew freely in the wind rushing past him and finally, because of his energetic body, he made it to the fish shop in record speeds. Almost. "Hee hee. I want to buy some fish, Mr. Store keeper!"

"Hey Luffy, you look like you're in a good mood today. So, did the pirates leave you behind again?" The store keeper set his hands on the counter of his small shop and a wild grin appeared on his large face, the woman behind him smiling as well. "Either way, you can't swim anymore."

"That's alright!" The neko's ears twitched slightly, "I'll just be a pirate who doesn't fall into the sea! After eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi, I've become even happier! Look!" With that said, Luffy grabbed his cheeks and stretched them as far as he could, all the while he tried to smile though his stretched mouth.

From behind him though, he heard an all-too familiar voice that he had never really grown a special liking to. "What's so good about that?!" Maybe the whole village thinks that's cool, but what good does that do… Having a rubber body!"

Luffy looked behind him and quickly turned his head around to face the direction of the fish shop. "I'm gonna tell you again, Luffy. Don't become a pirate! It'll ruin this town's reputation! The captain may look like a reasonable person, but don't hang around him again!" All the while the mayor was saying this, Luffy had plugged in his human ears with his index fingers and he laid his ears against his head so that he wouldn't have to listen more, also sticking out his tongue to tease him a bit more.

●ω●

Luffy sat on one of the bar's stools in front of Makino who was on the other side of the counter. He held a beer jug in his hands now empty and only ice laying on the bottom. His tail swished from one side to the other in a slow manner. He was somewhat aggravated, but not so much to where his tail was like a maddened snake ready to kill.

"They've been gone for a while now." The neko said.

"Do you feel lonely, Luffy" Makino asked cleaning one of the jugs in her kind voice.

"Nope. I haven't forgiven them for the bandit's incident yet!" He said forcing his jug on the counter with a soft _thud_. "I overestimated Shanks! I thought he was a tough pirate. What a disappointment." He said, the lip of the jug now rolling in between his teeth.

Makino picked up a wine glass and began to clean the glass, "Really? I thought people who could laugh it off after getting picked on are pretty brave." Her tail was moving in its softest movements.

"That's because you don't understand. There are times when a man should fight back!" Luffy said, angrily pouting through his lips which were perked in a way that would still hold the lip of the jug.

"Oh? I guess I don't know anything then." She smiled.

"That's right, you don't."

After he said that, an unwanted man walked inside the bar and once again greeted them with an 'excuse me'. Luffy immediately looked over his shoulder with a smile but it was cut short when he realized who the man who had entered were. His smile turned into one of shock, realizing that his tail and ears were still exposed. He and Makino tucked in their tails but only Makino could properly hide her hears. Luffy was left with only his hands to cover them.

"Well, looks like the pirates aren't here today. It sure is quiet." Behind the bandit leader, the same bandits walked right behind him, some smirking while others laughed at another's joke. Everyone took their seats on the tables and when Makino only stared, the leader banged his hand on the table and yelled, "What are you waiting for?! We're customers! Bring us some sake!"

●ω●

"What an interesting body." The leader of the bandits said, clearly amused.

"Yep, seems like kicking and punching won't do any harm to it." Another said.

The bandits circled around Luffy, clearly amused by the fact that his body was made of rubber and that he had both cats ears and a cat tail. They only found out because earlier, the leader had finally noticed, after Luffy had yelled at him, that the boy was hiding something underneath his hands, so, when the boy had let his guard down, the bandit took the chance to see what was really underneath his hands, and it clearly ended devastatingly.

"Damn it! Apologize to me right now!" the bandit leader had Luffy strangled by the neck while with his free hand, he pulled his cheek. "You bastard!" he said as he tried to punch him, only to have him dodge the attack.

"Oh, a rubber man, huh…?" He said amused, "Who would've thought such a _thing_ existed in this world…!?" While holding his cheek, he let go of Luffy's throat and threw him to the ground, lunging him afterwards.

"Damn it!" Luffy's tail was waving ferociously, definitely much deadlier than a snake, as he glared at the bandits.

"A different type of human. A neko too…" The leader said again.

"You'll be sorry for this!" Luffy raged.

"If I sell him to a circus… I can sure get a lot of money."

Luffy grabbed a large baseball bat-sized stick and lashed out towards the leader. "What a strong… Brat!" The leader raised his foot and crushed Luffy's head and if he had not been rubber, his head wouldn't even exist by now.

"We were just having a good time drinking and talking…" The bandit leader raised his hands below his neck and waved his hands around a bit, "Did we say something that pissed you off?"

"Yes you did!" Luffy yelled from underneath his foot still grounded into his face, "Apologize right now! Damnit! Move your damn foot! You damned bandit!" the neko squirmed from underneath, trying to free himself as he grit his teeth as hard as he could.

Suddenly, from the corner of the neko's sight, he saw two figures quickly running closer to the group of bandits and him. "Let the child go! Please!" Luffy's eyes widened to see that the mayor and Makino were only a few feet away from him and the bandits, begging for them to let him go. He definitely wasn't expecting to see the person who always disapproved of his dream to become a pirate to confront a group of bandits with someone dear to him. What surprised him more though was that the mayor not only begged but also fell to his knees and hands and pleaded some more. "I don't know what Luffy did, and I don't want to argue with you… But I'm willing to pay! So please, let the child go!"

"Chief…!" Luffy didn't really know how to feel about the mayor now, but he was sure he was going to have to repay him someday.

The bandit leader squeezed his foot harder on the neko's head and looked at the mayor with a smirk. "As one would expect, it's the elders that know the proper way to deal with any situation," he lifted his hand close to his neck and a strangling gesture was clear, as if he was ready to kill anyone, "but it's too late! You can't save this little brat now because he really makes me angry…! When a weakling insults me, it makes me _so_ angry!"

Luffy growled deep in his throat. He remembered about kyōbō mode, and he knew that if he were to be in it, he could definitely defeat the bandit, but he also knew he was too young to even unlock half of it, so he resorted to calling him names, "It's your fault! You wild baboon!" his tail was now whipping violently. This caused the bandit to look down at his prey and scoff.

"Fine, I'm not gonna sell you. I'll kill you instead." With that, he took out his sword and raised it above the neko's body, ready to slice and stab.

"Luffy!" He heard Makino yell out.

"Pl-Please! Let him go!" The mayor yelled out afterwards, pleading some more.

Without warning though, Luffy saw a figure suddenly appear in between Makino and the mayor. He widened his eyes and his tail slowed his whipping. He ears relaxed a bit but there was definitely still anger in his eyes. "I was wondering why no one welcomed us at the port." The figure said, his straw hat and red bangs shadowing his eyes. "So this is why…" Makino and the mayor looked to their middle and saw a definitely wanted character.

Shanks looked up and his constant smile reappeared once again in its own mocking way. "Hey, you guys were the bandits from the other day." Makino's tail puffed a bit but immediately relaxed when she called out 'captain.' "Luffy! What's wrong?" Shanks looked down at Luffy with his mocking smile, "Isn't your punch as strong as pistol fire?"

Luffy's tail bristled as his eyes flashed a bit more anger than before, "Shut up!"

"Pirate… why are you still here?" the bandit said looking towards the pirate captain with bored eyes and a sadistic smirk, "Are you going to clean up the whole town this time?" He mocked.

Shanks walked closer to the bandits with no worries. One of the bandits looked at him and smirked just like their leader and pulled out a gun. The leader held out his sword, still preparing to kill the neko underneath him, "I suggest you leave right now. If you get any closer, I might have to open fire, you coward."

Once Shanks was close enough, the bandit with the gun held up the gun pointed at Shanks head and smirked, "Didn't you hear!? You were told not to get closer!" He loaded the gun, "Do you want to get shot?" The other bandits started laughing, almost as if they wanted to see someone die from getting shot in the head by their pal.

Shanks slowly turned his head to look at the bandit threatening him and looked at him, not moving his head completely, "Well, since you pulled out your gun, I'll guess we'll have to fight." He said calmly. The bandit threatening him looked at him confused and lowed his guard a bit. Shanks then pointed at the gun with one finger and with a sincere smile, he said quite frighteningly, "I said, don't use this to scare people." And on cue, a loud noise sounded and the bandit fell onto the floor, blood seeping out from the bullet wound in his head.

Luffy widened his eyes in horror but with a bit of amazement, he then looked at the one who shot him and saw a fat body holding out a gun, the man eating a large piece of meat. He then realized that Lucky was the one who had done the deed. All at once, the rest of the red hair's crew appeared behind him, all wearing serious frowns.

"Now you've done it, bastard!" One bandit yelled out.

"Damn it… That was dirty!" Another joined.

"Dirty?" Yasopp asked, crossing his arms.

Ben stuffed his hands in his pockets as smoke rose from his cigarette. "Don't make us laugh. Do you think we're saints or something?"

Shanks grabbed his black cape and smirked, "The people standing in front of you are pirates."

One of the bandits growled and yelled at Shanks, "Shut up! This is none of your business."

Shanks completely ignored him and took a step closer then stopped, "Listen well bandits… you can whip food or sake at me… or even spit on me. I can laugh it off. But…!" Luffy flinched from underneath the man's foot, he knew that his tail was going to puff up any moment now, "I don't care what reasons you have! I won't forgive anyone who messes with my friends!" Luffy, expecting his tail to turn into a fuzzy ball, instead whipped around calmly. His eyes widened and he felt something new for the pirate captain. Silently, he whispered to himself, and called out the pirate's name.

The moment was ruined though when the bandit leader started laughing uncontrollably, making fun of what Shanks had said earlier. "You, a bunch of pirates who float around on a ship all day, want to challenge us!? We will destroy you!" Immediately, all the bandits charged forward, unsheathing their swords and other weapons they had, also using verbal combat which was completely ignored. Ben walked up to Shank's side and pulled out his shot gun.

"Let me deal with this. I can take care of them myself." He said, turning his gun backwards. When the first bandit reached him, he slashed his sword but missed, in return, Ben pulled out his cigarette from his mouth and in lightning speed, he set the hot part of the cigarette on the man's nose bridge, terrifyingly close to his eye. The man fell onto the ground, wailing in pain as Luffy watched Ben completely destroy everyone with the butt of his gun, not even breaking a single sweat. He then pointed the gun at the bandit leader who had a scared expression, clearly he had underestimated the strength of a pirate.

"Wow…" the raven-haired boy said in obvious amazement.

Out of nowhere though, the bandit threw a smoke bomb onto the floor. Exploding white smoke invaded the street as Shanks and the rest of the pirates and unconscious bandits were engulfed in it. "Come with me brat!" Luffy watched as the bandit picked him up roughly. Before he knew it, he was already far away from the place where the smoke was. "Damnit! Let go of me!"

Luffy watched as the bandit leader threw him on a small boat and they began to sail. Soon enough, they were far away from shore and Luffy's chances of escape were zero. The fact that he didn't know how to swim before and that he had eaten a devil fruit weren't helping either. The bandit started to laugh manically and boasted on how they escaped and how they were never going to find them, because, who would ever think to find a bandit on a boat? He then stopped laughing and looked at Luffy with merciless eyes. "Well, I only used you as a hostage, but you are useless now. I've killed fifty-six people who messed with me before, you know." Luffy looked at the salty water below him and grew extremely worried. His tail bristled with every moment the boat would make on the waves and he grew uneasy by the movement.

He then glared at the bandit and lunged at him with a punch. "Go to hell!"

He heard the bandit chuckle before the next thing he knew, he felt a sharp pain on his stomach and he was rapidly falling towards the water. There was darkness for a moment before he started to splash forcefully on the water and he found air. He could hear the manic laughs of the bandit who was still standing on the boat, laughing at how the neko was drowning with no means of escape. He continued to splash desperately but he stopped for a moment when he heard a low growl that definitely didn't come from the bandit, as much as it sounded like him. Suddenly, his tail puffed up from under the water—allowing water to soak it even more—when he saw a huge, dark figure appear from behind the boat the bandit was on. In not even a second, the boat was crushed and the bandit was gone, not a single trace of human left anywhere.

He stopped moving completely when he realized that if he made any noise, it would get its attention, but, when a red eye found its way to Luffy, staring deep at him, Luffy panicked and continued to splash desperately on the water, begging the heavens for someone to help him. The sea king, now rapidly going towards Luffy, opened its jaws wide, revealing razor-sharp teeth ready to kill. Luffy's tears finally found their way out as he wailed some more. Finally, the jaws chomped down as blood flew everywhere and mixed with the salt water. Luffy closed his eyes shut and slowly opened them. He was met with the gaze of the large sea king, and he found himself tightly in the grasp of a special pirate captain. "Shanks!" He managed to cry out.

He looked up at the captain, his flaming red hair completely exposed from the absence of his straw hat. "Get lost." He said threateningly to the large sea monster. They stared for a while but Luffy could see the terror in the sea king's eyes. A few seconds afterwards, the sea king obeyed and swam back into the water, as if something forced it to. Shanks looked down at Luffy and smiled warmly. "Thanks Luffy. Makino told me everything." Luffy continued to sniff, his tears threatening to spill once again, "Thanks for sticking up for us." He then smiled even wider and even let out a laugh, "Oh, c'mon. Boys don't cry."

Luffy's ears laid back against the back of his head as he cried some more, "But…! Shanks…!" Luffy let his tears spill completely and grabbed Shanks shirt as he cried into it, "YOUR ARM!" He continued to cry some more as the smell of fresh blood and salt water invaded his sensitive nose. He didn't even want to look at the left side of Shanks body. The limb that was supposed to be there was only a ragged stump that was soaked in crimson liquid. More blood continued to spill as he cried, all mixing with the water, giving it a hue of purple.

"It's nothing. It's just an arm…" he smiled kindly, "As long as you're alive."

Luffy choked on his tears and continued to wail, too scared to do anything else.

●ω●

The raven haired neko watched as the pirates carried barrels of water and sake and bags filled with food. He ran over to Shanks who had covered his arm with his black cape, completely concealing the injury. "You're really leaving this time?" he asked with a surprised expression, clearly not wanting him to go yet.

"Yep." Shanks looked back at his ship, "We've stayed here long enough. It's about time we move on. Are you upset?" He asked Luffy.

"Yeah… but, I won't force you to take me along anymore. I'll become a pirate by myself." The neko smiled sincerely.

"Heh, I wouldn't take you even if you begged me." Shanks mocked him even more by taking his tongue out, "You don't have what it takes to become a pirate!"

"Yes I do!" Luffy's ears and tail perked up along with his hands, "One day, I'll find myself a crew that is as strong as yours! And then I'll find the world's biggest treasure…! AND BECOME THE KING OF PIRATES!" he seethed.

Shanks smiled, "Oh…! So you want to be bigger than us, huh? Well then…" Luffy watched as the pirate captain raised his hand above his head and grabbed his precious straw hat. He then pulled it off and set it on Luffy's head. "This hat is my gift to you." Tears started to fall from Luffy's cheeks as his tail drooped low behind his legs. "This is my favorite hat, you know." Shanks turned around and walked away, but he didn't break his sight from Luffy. "When you become a great pirate in the future, you'll return that hat to me.

Luffy watched as Shanks and the rest of the crew go onboard their pirate ship and sail away. Tears started to fall once again from the neko's eyes as he tried his best to wipe them away. He recognized Makino's footsteps as she walked closer to him and set her hands on his shoulders. He bit his bottom lip as the endless stream of tears made their way out from his closed eye lids.

●ω●

"Ah… The weather sure is nice today." Luffy stared into the sky, his crossed arms behind his neck as he stared at the sea gulls flying over him. The waters were calm and the sun shun brilliantly against him. "Sure feels good." He said. As a neko, it was impossible for a neko—or a cat for that matter—to resist bathing in the sun light.

A loud splash sounded behind the neko.

When he turned around, he grabbed his hat and smiled excitedly. A large sea king with razor sharp teeth appeared, and Luffy couldn't have been happier. "I've been waiting for you, sea monster! This is your _unlucky_ day." His smile then changed into a smirk. "I'll show you what I've learned in the past ten years." The neko rose from his spot and with his left hand, he grabbed his right shoulder, while his right arm was forced back. "Gomu gomu no…" The sea king lunged itself at Luffy with an open mouth. "Pistol!" His arm stretched and landed a powerful hit on the sea king, right on the cheek, breaking a few teeth in the process.

"How'd that taste? Stupid fish!" Luffy said holding his right arm. Once the sea king had submerged completely, he sighed and breathed in the fresh, salty air. "Hehe, I'll have to find some friends first. I hope I can find at least ten people, and then I'll make a flag!" A wide smile made way to his face, "Alright, let's go! I'LL BECOME… THE KING OF PIRATES!"

●ω●

The raven-haired neko had recklessly went to sea with a small rowing boat—not even big enough to hold a maximum of two people—and had made plans on making some friends. Earlier, he had yelled out to everyone in the vicinity around him that he was setting off, and he had told himself that he wanted at least ten crew members, but he was especially wanting a musician, no matter what. Yet, even though he had just started his journey, he had ignored a tingling in his tail and had gotten himself into the jaws of the ocean. "Ah! The weather sure is nice today."

He grabbed one of the paddles from his boat and let it rest on his shoulder as he crossed his arms over it, a wide grin spread across his face. "On a nice day like this, who would've thought I'd get into such a disaster!?" The neko's tail swayed from side to side in amusement, clearly undisturbed by the massive hole in the water.

"What a huge whirlpool." He laughed and his tail swayed happily, "How careless of me. I even felt a shift in the wind." He got up from his spot and rested his hand on his forehead, searching the vast sea for any promising figures. "There's no one around me. It'll be really bad if this boat wrecks…" He shifted his hand so now his thumb and index finger were underneath his chin in a thinking gesture, as if the neko could think clearly anyway. "And on top of that, I can't even swim."

He thought a bit more and suddenly his tail perked up high like a housecat and bristled a bit in realization. He bumped his fist in his palm and an expression of understanding was evident, "Ah! Wait a minute!" He grinned, "It doesn't really matter if I know how to swim in a situation like this. Swimming won't save you here!" His ears twitched from underneath his straw hat realizing that his boat was too close to the center of the whirlpool. Suddenly, his boat creaked and moaned before it started to be pulled towards the center by the invisible hand of the ocean.

Before he could get a move on, his boat was sucked in almost completely, and thinking rapidly, his mind came up with the best solution his meat-filled mind could think of, and, it certainly did wonders.

●ω●

His stomach grumbled and echoed in his closed space inside the barrel he was in. His tail had been soaked a bit, causing it to drag a bit for the first hour or so, but after that time, it had also been enough time to dry, but it somehow ended inside his pants, out from the waist, into his hoodie and out from the neck. Comfortable wasn't the word he would use for the whole trip and on top of that, he was hungry. His black hole of a stomach wasn't doing anything to help either.

Luffy had his fun by—first taking out his tail—and putting it in strange places. When he got extremely bored, he managed to accidently tie his tail around his neck, temporarily causing him to see the light. Before he crossed the tunnel, he managed to untangle his appendage from around his neck and air finally managed to tunnel freely through his pipe and lungs.

It could've been his imagination, but he thought he saw an island with buildings and strange roofs and many sunflowers and a high castle, though he had no idea what that meant and he paid no heed to it. It was one of his subconscious rules in his mind that if he didn't understand, he didn't care, and he followed it very well.

After some time, he felt himself stop moving a little. At this point, he would've happily jumped out of the barrel and feel fresh land in what seemed like a billion years, but he had fallen asleep earlier and his sleep hadn't yet left him. He yawned and closed his eyes, deciding that he would wake up later when his stomach grumbled again.

While he was asleep, he did feel a weak tug on his barrel, but, like with the incident with the whirlpool, he paid no mind to what his mind was trying to process.

After some more minutes of sleep, he yawned as his stomach grumbled. His eyes slowly opened as he yawned once more. He was still moving slow but when his stomach demanded food even louder, a wide grin quickly made it to his face as he sprang to his feet, breaking the lid of the barrel he was in with his arms high in the sky and his straw hat set on his head, concealing his cat ears, though he didn't mind the strange feeling of display near his rear. Huh.

"What a nice nap that was!" He said, practically screaming to the world. "Looks like I'm saved. I thought I was gonna die too!" Fits of uncontrollable laughter exploded from the previous quiet room.

He rested the palms of his hands on the rim of the broken top of the barrel and stared at four different people gawking at him. A fat guy to his right wore a striped shirt and a bandana as headwear—also striped. The neko found his facial hair curious since his sideburns ending in little curls that looked too small for the big guy. The one next to him was skinnier and wore nothing special, but he did have a bare head and a beard that connected with his moustache. Another to his left wore a striped shirt like—what he assumed was—his partner but vertical instead of horizontal with a small sash tied around his waist. He, like everyone else, had a surprised expression. Though, the last one looked like a… _wimp_ , compared to the others. He had large, circular glasses and pink hair that was combed to the sides. He wore a white T-shirt with three blue stripes that reached from the short sleeves to the neck collar. The colors reminded him of his grandpa since he was a marine, though he looked nothing like one, so he dismissed his idea.

The neko, barely realizing what was going on, reached behind his back and slowly tucked in his tail in his pants. He then hunched forward and slightly squinted his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked as if he wasn't the strange one.

Almost immediately, the three taller ones yelled at him, repeating the same question with a bit more aggression, though a lot more confusion in it. The fat one walked over to him and grit his teeth, "Why would someone be coming out of a wine barrel!?" he asked with beads of sweat dripping off him.

Before Luffy could answer, the room exploded into a million pieces of wood and stone, and on top of it all was what looked like a heavy mace, spikes protruding from each end. But, before the neko could see the culprit of the destruction of the building, he—still inside the barrel—was flung into the forest. Though, he was completely unfazed by both the impact and the fall.

It took some time but the wimpy kid with the other men walked up to him and asked him if he was okay. Luffy laughed a bit, _**still**_ inside the barrel, and said he was fine, though he was a little surprised. He then introduced himself and asked the boy where he was.

"This is the breeding ground of the pirate 'Iron Mace Alvida.' I'm the caretaker on this ship. My name is Coby." The boy, Coby, said with a small smile.

Luffy planted his leg to the ground and hoisted his other out of the barrel, his tail and ears still concealed from sight. "I see. Actually, that's not important." A small 'oh' peeped out from Coby's mouth and a dumb-founded expression planted itself on his face, a bit more sweat than before as well.

Luffy looked back at Coby and smiled, "Do you have a small boat? Mine got caught in a whirlpool." He asked as if it was something that every day in everybody's lives.

"Whirl…Whirlpool?! You were caught in a whirlpool?!" He asked, clearly surprised.

"Yea, that whirlpool was scary." Luffy crossed his arms and a frown made it to his face, a bit annoyed that he lost his boat almost as soon as he set sail.

"A normal person would've died already…" the pink-haired boy shifted his round glasses higher, "You… you want a small boat? Well, I have one, but…" Coby walked away for a few seconds and from behind a few bushes, shrubs and trees, he pulled out what seemed like a whole bunch of wood vomited from a diseased boat.

"What's this?" Luffy bent over and looked at it with almost pity, "A coffin?"

"That's a boat I secretly built for two years."

"Spent two years? You… don't want it anymore?" the neko looked at Coby, shifting his pity towards him, but it quickly disappeared when the boy rambled on how he was going to use it and how he didn't have what it took to escape. Luffy told him that he should leave then but the boy rambled on more about how he was terrified of doing so.

"That day… I was only fishing, but I accidently walked onto this ship! And I had to become a caretaker on the ship these two years to stay alive…!" He said with a shameful and horrid look.

Luffy listened to his story and his ears twitched from underneath his hat. He could definitely smell the amount of fear that was being released from the boy, so much that he could almost see a yellow, greenish gas around him. Though, he didn't hold such pity in his system. "You're pretty stupid and useless. And you seem kinda wimpy too. I don't like you." He said laughing. Coby looked at Luffy and after rambling a bit more, he asked the neko why he was sailing, to which Luffy simply responded, "I want to become the pirate king!"

Coby's eyes widened by what he had heard. Luffy sensed the fear rise much more than before and this time, he was definitely seeing yellow. "Eh….! Wha?! What?! 'Pirate King' was the title of someone who has everything in this world! Are you telling me that you're looking for the 'world's greatest treasure'?! THE ONE PIECE!?" Coby flailed his arms around like a mad man. "You wanna die or something? All the pirates in the world are looking for that treasure!"

"Well, so am I." Luffy said, crossing his arms and legs, his tail resting safely inside, but a bit uncomfortable.

"Im…Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Utterly, utterly impossible! To become the pirate king in the pirate era, there's no chance! Utterly impossible!" Coby said, sweat dropping from his forehead harder than before like heavy rain. Luffy raised a fist and bonked the rambling pink-haired boy hard on the head. "Ow! W-Why'd you hit me?" He said now flailing on the ground.

"Because I couldn't stand you." Was his simple answer. "I'm not afraid of dying. It's my dream, and that's why I won't mind dying for it." He desperately wanted to grab his straw hat and hold it proudly on his head, but he knew what was hiding underneath. "Hey, can I trust you with something?" The neko asked the boy, who was staring intently at him for some reason. To Luffy, it smelled something like recognition.

"Well, I guess so…" Coby answered warily.

Luffy smiled and a wide grin appeared on his already smiling face. With that, he grabbed his straw hat and pulled it off his head, his black ears plopping from underneath. He didn't stop there though. He lowered his pants a bit and softly grabbed his tail, pulling it out without too much trouble. When he looked at Coby, he was definitely expecting a surprised look, but they expression on the others' face was nothing he had ever seen on a human face before. His jaws were wide agape, every single tooth in his jaws revealed as his tongue almost stuck out. His eyes were bulging and it even seemed as if his pink hair was reacting as well since most of it was sticking out in every direction.

"Anyway, I think I could do it. Although it could get pretty tough." He said holding his hat close to his chest.

After many seconds, Coby finally spoke up, "You-You're a neko…! Lu-Luffy-san… You're a neko!" Coby practically choked out, "You're like a human gold mine! Luffy, if anyone else were to see you like this, they would definitely only think about getting their hands on gold and silver! You can't just go around showing everyone you think you trust your ears and tail! Think about it! What if I wasn't someone to be trusted?!"

"But I do trust you. And besides, there's nothing about you that seems threatening!" He said with a wide grin, his ears and tail twitching.

●ω●

After talking a bit more, Coby had confessed his dream to Luffy, asking him if it was something possible. Somewhere throughout his dream, Luffy had put back his hat and had hid his tail. Though, at the end of his rant of catching bad guys, he stated that the first pirate he was going to catch was going to be Alvida. As if on cue, a large woman crashed her mace onto the coffin-like boat, completely obliteration it. "Who did you say you are going to arrest, Coby?!" She looked up at him with a disgusting glare. "Did you think you can escape from me!?"

Not long after, the rest of the pirates shuffled in from behind her with maniacal expressions. "Is that who you hired to capture me? He doesn't seem to be Roronoa Zoro." Luffy perked his ears from underneath the straw hat and his tail twitched uncomfortable from inside his pants. _Roronoa Zoro?_ Something about saying his name had gotten his attention. "Anyway, before you die, I'm going to ask you, what's the most beautiful thing in the sea, Coby?!"

Coby started to stutter, sweat running down him like an overflowing waterfall. He was scratching the back of his head as he thought hard what to say and what to do.

Luffy looked at Coby then at the woman named Alvida. "Hey Coby, who's this ugly, fat lady?" He said bluntly, pointing to what he was talking about. Coby and everybody else gawked at what he had said. The pink-haired boy reached out and grabbed Luffy's shoulders with sweaty arms.

"Quick, Luffy! Repeat after me! In all the seas, this lady is the most…" he started but stopped, confusing Luffy, but a small smile invaded his mouth, "The rudest, damned _bitch!_ " Luffy knew it. Well, more like he smelt it. His smell had changed drastically, changing from fear to courage. The color, although still mixed with some yellow, was definitely red. The yellow from the fear from before slowly got stronger but to Luffy, if was satisfying to see that color again on someone else other than the people and loved ones who were at home and those who used to be.

Luffy, being the type of kid who laughed at everything in his path, started to do just that. His laughter was quite relieving as well, somewhat calming his non-angered nerves (if that makes any sense). He continued to laugh over the scream of the fat pirate and the wails of his new friend, but, when he caught on what Coby had said about not regretting a thing for his dream, the neko stopped his laughter and took in a deep breath to calm his systems.

He stepped in front of the sweating kid and pushed him back with his hand, keeping it there so that he was out of harm's way. "Well said, Coby! Now get behind me!" said Luffy.

Alvida raised her mace high above her head and within clenched jaws, she muttered something out before landing a full blow on the neko's head.

Luffy grinned from underneath the weapon. His eyes were shadowed by both his hat and bangs but his smile was definitely evident on him. "It's useless against me… because my body is made of rubber." The female pirate grew confused but a look of terror overtook her past expression. The neko flung his arm back while holding it with his other hand. "Gomu Gomu no…" a malicious smile came across his face for a sheer moment, one that clearly read _'sorry lady. I just won.'_

"Pistol!" his arm stretched and connected with her left cheek, completely knocking her out. She had flown a good few feet before she collapsed on the floor, unconscious. Luffy stared on as her pirate crew circled around her large body, pointing out the obvious, some saying how she was beaten and how Luffy's arm had stretched, which, if you thought about it, wasn't all too obvious.

He pointed at the surprised pirates and with a serious look, he ordered them to get a boat for Coby. "He wants to join the marines! So stay outta his way!" The pirates stared agape at him as they simultaneously stuttered a small 'yes'. Luffy replaced his serious frown with a smile and giggled proudly, light shining off of him as if he was a star.

●ω●

Luffy sat on the bow of the small boat that was currently heading the opposite direction of the island they previously were on. Coby continued to ask Luffy questions about him being a neko and if the myths about them were true. Even to Luffy, it was obvious the pink-haired boy was quite intrigued by his ears and tail, which were now out of their closed spaces.

Speaking of cat features, Luffy's tail was swaying happily, once again feeling the salty air on his usually hidden-away cat parts.

"So, is it actually true that nekos only come from a few islands in East Blue?" He asked.

Luffy looked back at his friend and looked up at the sky as if he was thinking. "No." He said bluntly. "Actually, from what I know of the island I came from, it was only my village that had nekos. I visited some other places around there and as far as I can remember, the small village I was born and raised in was the only place that had nekos."

Coby looked at Luffy with a more confident voice, "So what you're trying to say is, is that only small parts of every island have nekos. Am I right?"

"Yep."

"I see…"

There was some silence between the two before Coby broke the awkwardness by asking some more questions about Luffy, beginning from him eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi to his dream of becoming 'Pirate King'. "But Luffy-san, if you're looking for the 'One Piece', that means you have to get into the 'Grand Line', right?"

"Yep!"

"But that place is known as the pirates' graveyard." Coby stated with his hands resting on his knees.

"Yea, that's why I need a strong crew." Luffy looked back at Coby and grew an oddly small smile as he pointed to some random direction on the vast ocean, "And one of them is being held captive at the place you're going."

"You mean… Roronoa Zoro?" asked Coby.

"If he's a good guy, I'd ask him to join me!" Luffy said, his smile returning to his trademark grin. Once again, light seemed like it was emanating from his mood.

"What?! You're dreaming again! You can't! He's like a monster!"

"We can't be sure about that yet." The neko countered.

"It'll never work!"

The neko's tail swayed peacefully, something that wasn't too common for the usually hyper kid, but, this time he was definitely content. "Monster, huh?" Luffy said, not looking at the person he was talking to. He was too excited. He wanted to be the first person to see the island where he was going to recruit his first crewmate.

"Yea Luffy-san." Coby said from behind the mast, walking over to where the older boy was sitting. "Roronoa Zoro is also known as the 'Pirate Hunter', he's a scary person." Coby shifted his round glasses closer to his eyes. "Rumor says he's like a blood thirsty hound, he wanders around the sea and hunts down fugitives. He's a monster in the form of a man."

Luffy looked back at the pink-haired boy. "Oh yea?" He knew there was something about him. Even though he had never seen or met the swordsman, he would always feel his tail bristle, but in a good way. Even saying the name 'Roronoa Zoro' sent a tingly, but nice shiver down his spine. To prove the point to himself, he whispered the swordsman's name and after saying it, a wide grin made it to his face. After ignoring what his cat instincts had told him before, he decided that he was definitely going to listen to what his body was telling him: _there's something about this man and you definitely want to see what it is._

Coby raised his hands in a protesting gesture, waving them in front of his chest. "So let's drop the idea of recruiting him…"

Luffy smiled and laughed a bit, "I haven't made up my mind about recruiting him yet!" He paused a moment and remembered the special tingle he felt before when he simply said his name, "But if he's a good person…"

"HE'S ARRESTED BECAUSE HE'S BAD!" Coby countered.

●ω●

"We're finally at the marines' base!" Luffy punched the air as he hopped of the bow of the small boat he and Coby were on a second before. "You're great Coby!" he said stuffing his tail into his pants. His ears were already hidden by the straw hat he was wearing during the trip. Coby looked questioningly at the neko and a worried expression came over him. The raven-haired boy looked back at Coby and smiled, "We've actually made it to our destination!"

"Of course! That's the basics of navigation." Coby said with a glint of worry. "If you wander around at sea every time, you'll never become a pirate. You should at least find a navigator for you."

Luffy completely ignored Coby by thinking with his stomach. Besides, he didn't get anything to eat while he was at the island where Coby was with the fat pirate lady. "Alright! Let's go eat!"

●ω●

Luffy patted his stomach as he finished munching the last of his meal. Since they didn't have much money, they could only buy so much food for each one, though, while Luffy had already finished his plate and drink, Coby still had some rice on his plate. "We'll go our separate ways here! You do your best to be a great marine, alright?"

Although Coby wiped away his tears, Luffy smelled what type of tears they were. They were mixed with happiness but it smelled more like candy than cut grass, something like recognition as well. Gratitude. "I will…! Thank you so much!" Coby said wiping away more tears. "Luffy-san, you have to become a great pirate too… although we'll be enemies in the future."

Luffy leaned against his chair and sighed. "Say, I wonder if Zoro is still being kept at the marines' base."

Immediately after saying that, everybody else inside the restaurant jumped out of their chairs and created a mess of flying chairs, table and plates. When the neko looked at the customers, he found them all huddled together in a big group, scared out of their minds. Coby drew closer to Luffy and whispered to him how they probably shouldn't yell out the name 'Zoro', to which Luffy agreed, though, to him, he found it quite entertaining to see random people fly out of their chairs.

The pink-haired boy grew a small smile and told Luffy how he saw a notice about the marine base having a lieutenant called Morgan, and, surprisingly, the customers acted much the same way, all throwing their plates and chairs and tables and even other people.

When they left the restaurant, Luffy grabbed his stomach and slightly hunched over as he walked, laughing uncontrollably. "What an interesting restaurant! I gotta go there again!" Coby looked at the laughing neko and told him how he felt uneasy, and what a truth that was. When Luffy took a sniff in the air, he smelled the sweat on his friend, mixed with an onion odor. After thinking about it, he really thought that the boy was only capable of feeling an emotion with fear in it, no matter what it was.

"I could understand why they'd be scared after hearing Roronoa Zoro's name, since he could escape anytime, but why would they be afraid of a marine lieutenant's name too?!" he started to ramble.

"Well, he could've done something bad, right?" Luffy said bluntly as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked in front of Coby towards the marines' base, only having Coby yelling at him that it was impossible. "I'm serious." He said, looking at Coby. He wasn't a bright boy, and he wasn't a thinker either, but he recognized the smell of intense fear radiating from each of the customer's bodies. That smell was something that only one would emit if they had seen something that they would love to escape from, it was exactly like Coby's when he was with the female pirate captain as her cabin boy and navigator.

After a bit more walking, they finally made it in front of the marine base. The building had thick, blue patterns on it while the building itself was a light gray. Surrounding the base was a high, brick fence with metal doors with the word 'Marine' on it with the symbol of a seagull holding a wrench. "It looks pretty ugly up close." Luffy said. "Go ahead Coby." He said looking at the chubby kid. He stuttered out a few words about how he wasn't ready and that the incident at the restaurant had him thinking about something, but Luffy had already jogged to the brick wall and hopped onto the top, his body against the wall.

He raised his hand above his forehead as he studied the grounds of the base. "Monster… I wonder where he is?" he said with a small but excited smile. He hopped of the wall and continued to run to his left.

"You can't find him that easily. He's probably being kept in a secret room or something." Coby said without even looking.

"No! I saw something over there!" He continued to run further away from his friend and hopped once again on the wall as a wide smile appeared on his face. "Look at that person." He said resting his arms on the other side of the wall, facing inside the base. The man he saw inside was tied on what seemed like a cross. The man wore a black bandana tied on his head, completely covering from his forehead up. What had caught his attention was that the tied man had green hair, which, for any average human, would be impossible to see from where they were looking. He saw his glare but he immediately covered his nose.

Without even looking at Coby, his nostrils were infested by a disgusting onion smell. When he looked at Coby, his nose had been shriveled to a small raisin. Actually, he thought he had smelt the worst of Coby's fear, but… apparently not. Said kid was on the floor, shivering and sweating as if he had been near death. Luffy, still holding his nose, asked Coby what was wrong. "Th-That black bandana and cloth around his waist… and that intimidating aura…! It's Zoro…! It…It's him! Roronoa Zoro!" He finally stuttered out.

After hearing the name _twice_ , Luffy's body bristled excitingly. Luffy smelled it. It wasn't an emotion nor was it coming from his shivering friend. It was something that only he would know about just from a sniff, not even, just a little hint was all that he needed to figure out what it was about Zoro that interested him so much. He looked back over the wall and at the tied man, studying him more.

 _Yes. Something is definitely there…_ Luffy sniffed once more but the smell of fear overtook his nose. He looked back at Coby again annoyed and huffed. He couldn't use his smell to know what Zoro was, but he didn't want to blame his friend so he tried sniffing once more but to no avail. Zoro wore a white shirt with three undone buttons at the collar, black trousers tucked inside black boots plus the bandana and waistband from before.

"So he's Zoro, huh…? Looks to me those ropes are pretty easy to break." Luffy said bluntly, but he was completely serious about it.

"S-Stop joking! If you free him, he could make a mess in the town and even kill you!" Coby countered, a horrid look on his chubby face.

Luffy didn't tear off his eyes from Zoro though. His eyes were wide in curiosity and honestly, he wanted to walk over there himself and see what he was so curious about. The neko watched as the bound man twitched before looking up with a curious look as well. There, Luffy saw it. He finally found out what his tail and ears kept twitching about. A wide smile came across his face as he prepared himself to jump off the wall, but he stopped when he heard his voice.

"Hey, you!" he said looking at Luffy with a shark grin. "Could you please come over here and untie me? I've been tied up for nine days and I'm exhausted." Luffy took note of all the blood and bruises on the swordsman. He imagined since he was tied up, he was beaten while he couldn't do anything. This made the neko mad, but since he didn't know who it was who had done that to him, he didn't really show it.

"Look, he's smiling." Luffy stated with a confused frown, his anger well hidden.

"He-He talked…!" Coby hid behind the wall, not wanting to be harmed from the tied danger.

"I'll repay you. I could hunt down a fugitive and give you the rewards. I'm not lying. I'll keep my words." He said, a few fresh drops of blood trickled from his forehead and mouth onto his white shirt.

Luffy cocked his head in confusion. _Had he not smelled me yet?_ The neko thought. It took him awhile to come up with an explanation. He had noticed what the swordsman was and he knew it took someone even more idiotic than him to not realize what was in front of them. He had temporarily convinced himself that the swordsman was in fact an idiot but his tail bristled in an uncomfortable way. When that happened, it was usually because he was completely wrong and that it was the complete opposite of what he had guessed, so he came up with another possibility. It took him some time to actually realize it but it did make some sense. It made sense that if one saw something that they would want to see closer, that they would offer something to get their objective to come closer to them. Basically, Luffy had thought that the reason Zoro had asked of him to untie him and bait him with rewards was so that he himself could get a better look at him, to see if it was true, and honestly, Luffy had no problem with it as he himself wanted to recruit him and get a better look at the swordsman.

He looked at Coby as he tried to convince him, "No… don't do it Luffy-san! Don't be tricked by his words…! If you free him, he'll kill us and escape!"

Luffy's ears twitched from underneath his hat. He knew the truth. He knew that he wasn't going to do such a thing. He knew Coby could be cautious of everything, but after sniffing once more, there was no truth in the swordsman's words. The only part that was true was the part of him going closer to him. He wanted to untie Zoro's binds as well but he definitely needed an excuse to do what the swordsman wanted of him, especially since Coby was there watching his every move. He needed to say something that could possibly raise the spirits of the pink-haired boy.

"He can't kill me." He knew he started off wrong but he went with it anyway. He smiled as he looked at Zoro again, "Because I'm strong too." He watched a small smile make way to the swordsman's face. Luffy _knew_ it. He also figured out that the swordsman had seen through what he had said. Nekos, they sure were a smart bunch.

Even if some of them are idiots who think with their stomach.

●ω●

He wasn't feeling pain anymore. His mind had easily swept the pain under the rug and had replaced it with a more calming feeling. He hadn't seen when it was when the boys had climbed onto the brick wall but he did manage to see—or rather smell, something peculiar.

He recognized that smell.

It smelled like him.

Not as much danger, or as much fierceness, but it smelled like him.

When he had looked up from his post, he had saw the wide smile on one of the boy's faces while—what he assumed was his friend—the other fell from the wall only to shakily climb back afterwards. What was in between the smiling and the fall was a horrible onion smell that he wished would just vanish from his senses.

He also recognized that smell. He had usually smelled it before whenever he walked the streets of some populated village or town. Everywhere he went, he would see the yellow-green gas rise from the civilians. But that, that was something he had never smelled before. If he had guessed correctly, then the boy next to him should look about ready to pass out.

When he looked at the straw hat wearing boy on the bridge, he could tell by his look that he had never once in his life seen so much fear, and to be honest, neither had he. And that's saying something because he is what causes fear. Taking a closer look, he could see his nose slightly shrivel up. If the boy really was what he thought he was, then he felt sorry for him. After all, their noses were more advanced than a humans', so, once again, taking that information into realization, the straw hat kid must have realized by now.

"Hey, you!" he said looking at the black-haired boy, not caring about the chubbier one next to him. "Could you please come over here and untie me? I've been tied up for nine days and I'm exhausted." He stared at the boy as the boy stared back at him.

Though, he also found it quite curious that the boy had a hint of anger emitting from him. It wasn't directed at Zoro, but, it was directed at someone who wasn't there at the moment, which made sense since he didn't really show his anger.

"I'll repay you. I could hunt down a fugitive and give you the rewards." He knew what he was doing, he just hoped the other wouldn't actually believe it, "I'm not lying. I'll keep my words." His plan was quite simple but it took some thinking for one to understand what he was doing without any explaining. At first, he thought that the straw hat kid didn't understand at all, since he had cocked his head and a strong, confused smell came from him, but, after what seemed like hours, the boy's eyes widened and a small smile came across his face. He watched the boy as he spoke with his friend, who was protesting quite loudly against him, but, given the choice of words the other had chosen, he knew the kid was an idiot but did understand what he was saying. What had caught his attention though was that when the chubby kid said that he would kill them—what kind of absurdity is that?—the other said he was strong.

He sure didn't look strong.

People with large, buff bodies and with a large army couldn't even handle him. Though, he had once heard that appearances can fool the mind and deceive others, but sadly, he had seen none of that. But, there can always be a change in life.

A few seconds after he had said that, he saw a third head pop up from next to them, shushing the boys with her finger and a small hushing noise. Although it would be quite hard for a normal human to hear such small and silent noises, well… Zoro wasn't a normal human in both strength and appearances.

At first, he didn't know who the third head was until he saw the big, brown eyes and small pigtails.

He remembered her.

It was at least a bit over a week or two before when he had last seen her. She was definitely braver than most people in that restaurant though. But, even though he had protected her from that stupid 'dog', he had agreed to a month of no food. He didn't blame her at all though. In fact, if he hadn't been there, there would probably be a few extra gravestones in the local cemetery.

Though, he didn't know why she was walking up to him silently holding a small brown cloth that clearly hid something. Whatever it was inside the cloth, it was sweet. At that moment, there were two types of smells. One came from inside the brown cloth and the other came from the little girl, which smelled like cut grass. He hadn't smelled that combination in so long, it actually made him glad that the girl had visited him, but he knew what would happen if she didn't. "Hey, what are you doing here?" his voice was tired. He hadn't realized that before but he didn't care at that moment, he just didn't want her here, so he changed his tone to a more serious one and decided to sound a bit harsh, "Do you want to die or something? Get lost!"

Rika—he had heard before from what he supposed what was her mother—unwrapped what was inside the cloth which revealed two rice balls. For him, it would've been nicer if he had some ale or sake, they were good compliments to white rice and it just so happened that white rice was his favorite. "Um, brother," Zoro looked surprise by the use of 'brother'. It felt nice to have someone call him that after so long, "I made some rice balls for you! You haven't eaten for a long time, right?" she said holding out the food. "This is the first time I made rice balls.

"I'm not hungry! Go away!" he was yelling at her now.

"But…" She dipped her head lower as the smell from before completely vanished. The smell of candy and cut grass completely disappeared. Now, he felt bad, but he knew he couldn't stop there. There was too much danger.

"I don't want it! Leave me! I'll kill you if you don't!" He didn't mean the last part. He wouldn't go ahead and kill a little girl just for trying to help him. What he did mean though was the last part in his second sentence. _'Leave me'._ He completely meant it. The damn marines wouldn't have a care in the world even after murdering an innocent child. He desperately wanted her to leave. If she kept stalling, she was going to end up in danger.

Almost like he had jinxed it, a skinny and lanky-looking boy with two marine guards behind him walked towards the pair. His helmet-shaped hair annoyed the crap out of him and his purple suit and fancy shoes did absolutely nothing to help with that annoyance. "Roronoa Zoro! Don't pick on little kids, or else I'll have to report to my father about it.

Zoro didn't even bother to turn his head to look at the marine. The teen absolutely disgusted him. "If it isn't the lieutenant's bastard son." He said between grit teeth. The appendage safely hidden away in his thick trousers continued to bristle aggravated, dying to just murder the man in front of him.

"Bastard? Don't get cocky. My dad is a marine lieutenant." The boy said with a scowl. Because of the growling noise, Zoro took it as the start of a fight. That's what growling was meant for anyways.

He watched as the marine walked over to Rika and snatch away one of the rice balls from her hands, stuffing a large bite of the snack into his annoying mouth. Almost immediately after, he tried to spit out but had already swallowed most of the rice. "Horrible! You put sugar in it! You're supposed to put salt in these things!" He then continued to throw the one in his hand and the other rice ball onto the dirty ground, stomping on it and ignoring the pleas of Rika. Oh, how much Zoro hated that bastard. When the girl stated that he wouldn't be able to eat it anymore, his marshmallow heart almost instantly melted. He could definitely smell the sadness around her and the happiness around the bastard (that's the new name Zoro gave him). It smelled strange. It wasn't a common combination, seeing how the two emotions didn't mingle well, but it smelled as if the damp climate had suddenly changed to a warmer one, but the 'warm' feeling in fact chilled him.

It was reverse.

He knew what the intentions of each feeling was. The damp weather was there because it had tried to be like the smiling sun, only to be turned down by the people it wanted to warm, only to see that it's clear, blue skies had turned into gray clouds by the other skies, one that it so desperately wanted to be so that its gift would bring a smile. If he had eaten the rice ball, she probably would've left with a smile, but now, her skies were now covered by gray clouds.

As much as he hated to admit it, he believed it was his fault.

When the bastard stomped once more at the mud ball, he heard a small whimper. When he looked at Rika, she was trembling in sadness and in defeat. "That's so cruel! I-I tried really heard to make them…!" She said with a broken voice.

"Aww… don't cry!" He said with a disgusted voice, as if he wasn't the one who caused her to cry in the first place, "It's no wonder why I hate little brats so much." He then pulled out a piece of paper from underneath his suit and shoved it in front of her face, "It's all your fault you know? Didn't you see what was written here? 'Anyone who helps a prisoner will be charged with the same crime, Marine Lieutenant Morgan'. You know how scary my dad can be, right? You would've gotten the death penalty if you're a grown up!" The bastard turned around and without even looking at his guards, he asked them to throw out the 'brat'. "I'm telling you to throw her outta here! Are you trying to disobey me? I'm telling my dad!" He said holding the marine by his collar when he had flinched from the order the first time.

Zoro watched as the marine hunched down to the girls level and whispered something in her ear. Even though he was hungry and weakened, he completely heard what he had told her: _'Try to roll up in a little ball'._ At least not all marines were cold hearted. When he had told her this, she did as asked as the marine grabbed her and threw her over the brick fence. At first, Zoro thought she was going to be seriously injured, but he saw the straw hat boy jump from the wall and catch her, much to his relief, but he still couldn't forgive the bastard.

"I didn't think you'd have this kind of endurance! I'm gonna keep you alive for one whole month." The bastard said raising his hands to his sides as if he was shrugging.

"You better keep your promise!" Zoro seethed.

"Oh I'll keep my promise…" he laughed, "If you can live like this for one whole month, I'll keep my words and release you! Good luck!" He mocked.

Zoro watched as the bastard son walked off with his two guards out of the courtyard. He then shifted his gaze at the mess of rice and mud and stone on the floor right in front of him. He was damn hungry.

He then heard footsteps get closer to him. If it hadn't been for his keen hearing, he wouldn't have heard the soft steps walk towards him. He looked up from his gaze and saw the boy with the straw hat standing in front of him. He was surprised to say the least. Zoro expected that the boy would just know what he meant and what he was doing and leave him altogether but he didn't think he was really going to get close to him. He was a bounty hunter. He hunted and even sometimes killed to get his hands on some money to survive off of (and to pay back others) and he was being held captive at marine base which was clearly stated by the bastard son that intruders would be given the same treatment as the prisoners. Thinking about that made him remember about what the straw hat kid had said before to his friend, _'I'm strong.'_ That definitely made some sense but at the same time, the event prior made him sound aggravated at everything in the world. "You still haven't left yet? Leave now, or else he'll go tell his dad about it."

"Oh yea?" was all the kid said, before he started again on a different subject, "I'm looking for someone to join my pirate fleet." He said with a smile.

"Pirate?" He found it absurd at first. Only crazy or strong people (like him) of his species would leave their homes to adventure around the world, but he found it even more absurd that one of his kind would leave to become a crook. There were many explanations: tragic backstory, human auctioning, trauma, or just because they want others to suffer because of their past. He only left because he had a dream to complete for someone fallen. That's that. "Heh! So you gave up on life and became a crook, huh…?" He stated what he thought was the truth. It was the only explanation to why someone as young as he would want to become something so ugly.

"It's my dream! There's nothing wrong with being a pirate!" he countered back. Zoro was caught off guard by this. _A dream? Why would someone dream of becoming what people detest?_ He was confused by this. Something must have happened to make him want to become a pirate. It had to be something similar to his case. He had a dream and it all started by a vow. The vow was broken the next day, but, he had changed it to more of a dream. Perhaps, judging by both the smell, innocence and logic behind the kid, he wasn't lying. But, he then realized what he had just said. _Looking for people to join my pirate fleet._ He knew what that meant.

"Hm? Don't tell me you're gonna set me free and force me to join you." He said with a grin.

"I haven't made up my mind yet, since everyone thinks you're a bad guy." Zoro was slightly confused by this. From what he could tell, he hadn't decided for him to join his crew because everyone else saw him as a bad guy. That could mean that the pirate didn't want to look bad (which doesn't make sense at all) or that he didn't want a bad person in his crew (which also didn't make much sense either).

"A bad guy, huh…?" He grinned, "I'll never join you, because I have something that I need to take care of. I could survive even if you don't help me. I just need to stay alive for one month. That bastard kid promised to let me go afterwards. I'm gonna do everything I can to stay alive and fulfill my dreams!"

"Really?" The kid said with a smile. "If I were you, I think I'd starve to death in a week."

"That's why we're different. Go find someone else to join you." Zoro finished. There was a bit of silence between the two before the boy lost his smile and turned around to leave. "Hey! Hold on." He shifted his gaze to the mud ball on the floor, "That… can you pick it up for me?

The boy looked at the 'rice ball' and gawked at it before picking it up, "You want to eat this? But the rice ball is all muddy."

"Shut up and give it to me!" Zoro opened his mouth wide to allow the entrance of the rice ball. The kid did as told and threw the ball into his mouth, to which Zoro clamped his mouth shut and started to chew. Immediately afterwards, he started to choke on some of the rocks and dirt, but he didn't allow any crumb to leave his mouth. He continued to bite through the stone and dirt and finally swallowed the rice. The boy crossed his arms and frowned. "Tell that little girl…" The boy cocked his head in confusion, "'The rice balls taste very good. Thank you very much.'"

He smelled cut grass almost immediately after he had said that, but he didn't dare lift his head up. He was probably a sweating mess. For someone who wasn't dying of starvation, they would probably spit out everything before it even entered their mouth and scream out 'disgusting!' but Zoro was in fact, a starving animal. That rice ball tasted delicious.

When the kid left, his eyes widened as he remembered why he wanted the kid to get close to him in the first place. He lowered his gaze and sighed, his throat a bit scratchy, "Damnit."

●ω●

"Really!?" The little girl held her hands close to her chest as she smiled happily.

"Yep! He ate every last crumb!" The neko said, sitting crisscrossed with his arms hoisted on top of his ankles.

"I'm so happy!" The girl said. Oh, what a truth that was. She was practically the meaning of sugar and cut grass and cotton candy and everything that would make a person smile if they even caught a whiff of it.

Coby was also sitting behind the girl on a barrel like Luffy but he was supporting himself up with his hands resting on the barrel lid. "Is he really that horrible person his reputation says he is?"

Immediately, he got a response, "No, he isn't!" She walked back a bit so that she could look at both of the older boys at once. "Brother didn't do anything wrong. It's just that the people in this town are afraid of him. He got arrested because of me. He killed Helmeppo's pet wolf, because Helmeppo let his wolf run around and got everyone scared…" She informed them.

Luffy's tail twitched from inside his shorts. They've been stuffed in there for too long and this Helmeppo kid was getting on his nerves just by listening to her story. "So you're saying that Zoro's only arrested because he killed Helmeppo's pet wolf?" She nodded.

"You're right!" Coby lifted his glasses higher, "So maybe he has a bad temper, but chasing down fugitives isn't that big a crime either." He finished.

"The only bad guys are the Morgan's! You'll get executed if you disobey them, so everyone is afraid of them." Rika finished, but, as soon as she did, Luffy heard a loud and annoying but familiar voice coming from behind him, stating that anyone who raised their heads would be punished by his dad. _Too familiar_.

"Do you want to be like Roronoa Zoro? I'm gonna publicly execute him in three days. I'll use him as an example for all of you! It's gonna get pretty interesting." Luffy looked at the owner of the voice and saw the same person who was talking to Zoro earlier in the courtyard.

"Three days?" Luffy said to himself. According to Rika's story, this was Helmeppo. He walked over to Helmeppo as asked him a simple question, "Didn't you say you'll give him a month?"

"Who are you? How rude." He said smugly, "I was only joking with him! Only and idiot would believe that!" he said puffing out his cheeks.

Luffy stopped for a moment and thought back when he spoke with Zoro. _I just need to stay alive for one month. That bastard kid promised to let me go afterwards._ Luffy was beyond pissed. His mind started to click every gear into action as his physical body lunged forward at Helmeppo, punching him on the cheek. A loud cracking sound was heard and secretly, Luffy hoped he had broken his jaw, but sadly, it was just his imagination adding extra effects.

Luffy heard quick footsteps close in on him, recognizing who they belonged to. Without even looking, he knew Coby was going to hold him back. When his chubby friend did do it though, he didn't care though. His mind only stuck to one subject. That simple thought made his body quiver in anger and made his tail puff up, threatening to perk up and hunch his back even more than it already was. "Luffy-san!" He practically scolded, "Stop, please! Calm down!"

"You bastard!" Luffy was ready to pounce again, his tail starting to quiver the same way as his body.

"You want to mess with the marines or something?" Helmeppo cried out, holding his cheek. Luffy didn't care at all though. In fact, he wanted to inflict even more pain, play with his prey a bit more. His large cat instincts slowly dug their way through into his mind as he found a sudden urge to continue smacking his prey as they withered weakly. Large cats. So playful… He also didn't care when Helmeppo had threatened him by saying he was going to tell his dad. As if that would do him any good. These were the type of people Luffy detested. The ones who see glory in themselves while in reality, they hide behind someone else's back.

"Coby! I've decided!" He said not looking back at him and readying his fists once more,

"I'm gonna ask Zoro to join me!"

Luffy could practically feel heat rising off of him. Since he had punched the coward, he was being held back by Coby from underneath his arms. He smelled all the fear coming from the crowd who were bowing their heads earlier. For once, he didn't mind the onion smell, and for once, he didn't mind that everyone was staring at him with wide eyes and dropping jaws. He knew what they were looking at and it definitely wasn't the fact that he had punched Morgan's son—though, at first it was. Now, everyone was staring what was on top of his head, perked high like a wary meerkat.

When he had punched Helmeppo earlier, his hat had fallen off his head, revealing his black cat ears. He knew Coby had definitely noticed it too, seeing how he could smell a worried odor coming from behind him but he didn't let go, most likely so that he couldn't free himself from his grasps and charge at Helmeppo once more, finishing him off. "Luffy-san! Calm yourself! They are marines and everyone can see your—" Coby tried at least.

"I don't care! A bastard is still a bastard!" The revealed neko trembled in anger. He didn't care if everyone around him was seeing his ears and he didn't care if they found out more, so, he freed his whipping tail from his pants, surprising the spectators.

It had taken a while before Helmeppo had snapped out of his daze from both the hit and the cat features. He murmured something about how much money he could get from him but then he changed it to wanting him to die. "Y-Y-You dare to hit me?! My dad hasn't even hit me once!" He said rubbing his cheek. "I'm marine lieutenant Morgan's son! I'll tell him about this!" he said with tears threatening to spill.

Luffy could smell more of the onion smell even stronger now. He could tell that this 'Morgan' guy had done some serious damage to the civilians in the town, since everyone practically froze upon hearing his name. Luffy, on the other hand, was too pissed off to care. He never cared about the ranks of other people. He never cared about how people saw themselves. What he did care about though was that someone had forced another into torture for a full month only to finish them off afterwards. Too bad that the person he was going happened to be someone that Luffy wanted in his crew. That just tripled his piss off meter. "Why don't you fight me yourself?" he seethed through clamped jaws.

"Luffy-san! Don't do this!" Coby tried harder to control the beast coming out. Luffy felt his whipping tail thump against his smaller friends' leg, a loud thud noise being produced every time.

"You'll regret hitting me!" Helmeppo threatened with a sadistic glare as his marine guards picked him up, practically carrying him. "You'll get a death sentence for it! And my dad will be the one who executes you!"

Luffy huffed out many heavy breaths as he took one last one and sighed. He walked over to where his hat was lying and picked it up, setting it on his head, but he didn't hide his tail again. There was no point in doing so if everyone who was around had already seen it. "It's meaningless to hit people like him." He said with a bit of anger, but definitely not as much as before.

"He ran away…" Coby said quite dumbstruck.

Just then, he felt someone tug at his tail from behind him. At first, he thought someone was tugging it to get a fist in their face but when he turned around with a small growl, he saw Rika jump from her spot and blush a little. He stopped growling and smiled, knowing how sometimes kids didn't know how to use their strength properly and ending up hurting others. "Oh, hey there." He said crossing his arms and looking at Rika with a kind smile.

"You have a tail! That's so cool and cute!" She said holding her arms close to her chest.

"Really? I wouldn't know." Luffy replied happily, delighted on having someone call him cool. Not as much as the 'cute' but definitely the 'cool'.

"Onii-chan, you were also so cool! Just then I was scared to death!" She said with even more enthusiasm.

"Really?" He said again, seemingly getting even more excited with every word, "I should have hit him a couple more times!" His tail was swaying contently now. He could feel everyone's gaze on him but he didn't mind. He sometimes liked attention and he found it better this way. He would be able to walk to the marines' base and show Zoro who he really was. In fact, it did make sense if you thought about it. He wouldn't have to come up with an excuse of lowering his pants in front of someone else since he could just walk in already revealing his tail.

GENIUS! He was plain GENIUS!

Just then, a woman came out of a building and called out for Rika, her voice and smell full of worry. Luffy watched as the little girl tried to protest against her mother, telling her that he and Zoro were actually good people, but her mother simply told her not to be silly and asked her if she snuck into the execution site _again_. "Come back into the house quickly!" her mother snapped. Rika did as told and entered her house, looking back at Luffy with sad eyes. Luffy smelled the sadness but replied with a happy wave.

When the door finally closer, Luffy turned around and ignored Coby's rants of how the marines were going to come after them and how they were in a lot of trouble. "We'll deal with it when the time comes!" Luffy said bluntly as he continued to walk in the direction of the marines' base. "I'm gonna go talk to Zoro."

"Bu-But Luffy! Your tail!" Coby opposed the idea. "You can't let him see that!'

Luffy turned around to look at Coby with a smile, "Whaddya mean?" He said before sprinting off again towards the execution yard, laughing.

●ω●

Luffy walked towards the tied up sword-less swordsman, raising a hand to the side of his face as he said 'yo' in a patient but excited tone. He made sure to leave his tail in plain sight so that Zoro would be able to see it clearly, which he did. There was a smirk on the swordsman's face before he spoke up, "Knew it."

Luffy walked closer to Zoro and smiled. "Yep! You're also a neko, aren't you?" He said smiling.

"It should be obvious from where you're standing." He said before he started again. "Who would've thought I would see another of my kind walking around as a pirate."

Luffy grinned and chuckled innocently, "Speaking of pirates…" Luffy started, waving his black tail contently, "I'm Luffy. If I loosen up the ropes, then you're gonna join me, okay?!" He asked excitingly, but he could tell that Zoro would refuse flatly.

"I've told you clearly! I have things that I need to do. Besides, I'm not going to be a bad guy like a pirate." He stated.

"That's the difference? Besides, everyone already thinks you are a bad guy." Luffy said crossing his arms. His tail now swayed a bit quicker than before but he wasn't aggravated.

"I don't care what they say about me. I haven't done one thing I regret in the past and it will be the same for the future." He was practically glaring daggers at Luffy, but that wasn't enough to intimidate him. It took a lot to scare him. "I won't become a pirate!" He finished.

Luffy stared at him quietly before he huffed out in annoyance, his tail whipping once, "I don't care! You are going to join me!" Immediately, Zoro denied in an angry comical way. "Hey, I heard that you use katana, is that right?" Luffy changed the subject.

Zoro eased up a bit and slumped back into his cross. "If I'm not being tied up, I could use a katana." His tail swayed inside his black trousers.

"Where is the katana?" Luffy asked.

"That bastard kid took it. It's something that I treasure most other than my life."

"Oh?" Luffy smiled. "Treasure, huh? It must be something great! Okay! I'm gonna go to where the bastard kid is and get your katana back. But, if you want me to return it to you, you'll have to join me!"

"That's dirty!" How much Zoro wanted to choke the other neko. Luffy started charging towards the marines' base, "Oi! Wait!" He yelled out nervously for both the consequences and for the other neko. He looked flimsy and weak. He looked like he couldn't even harm a fly and he expected to get his katana from inside the base? This kid was plain crazy. "Is he planning on sneaking into the base? What a fool."

●ω●

Luffy looked up and searched around the area for any movement other than birds or mice (which he oh so desperately wanted to catch), having to grab his hat or else it would fall off. "That's strange. There isn't a single marine around. Are they having a meeting?" Luffy continued to search around the base before he set his hand below his chin in a thinking expression. "Never mind the katana, I can't even find that idiot son like this." He concluded.

After walking around a bit more, he looked up again and noticed a few sounds and the smell of fear and sweat from the very top of the marine tower. Looking closer, he saw what seemed to be a statue slowly being pulled higher and higher. "Huh? There seems to be people up there." Luffy said to himself, grabbing his hat the same way he did before. When he realized this, he lowered his arms and positioned it as if he was going to lunge and grab for something, his left arm holding his right. "Let's go up and see!"

He stretched his arm and with his rubber abilities, he managed to grab the top of the tower. "Gomu Gomu no…Rocket!" he said before releasing his weight and flung over to the top of the building a little too high and too fast. "Oh no… I'm going too fast!" He said as he grabbed his hat from falling off his head. He quickly looked around and saw plenty of ropes just in his reach, so he hunched forward and managed to grab a good handful of them, stopping his acceleration. He felt plenty of the pressure leave so he found it safe to land at the top of the tower, still holding onto one of the ropes in his hand. Suddenly, when he looked over to what he had grabbed onto on, there was a loud crack and the upper torso of a statue broke off from its lower segment.

He finally realized what he did and could only gawk at the mess it was going to create from down below. He looked at the people and raised his hand apologetically, "S-Sorry." He said before there was a loud crash down below, shocking everyone from the top even more.

"CAPTURE HIM! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" A man with a metal jaw and an axe for a hand screamed out his orders, to which the marines agreed fearfully.

"Dad, it's him!" Luffy knew that voice. In fact, he needed to know where that voice came from, "He's the one who hit me! I told you he's no good!" Luffy looked towards the owner of the voice and stared at him before realizing why he needed him. He lunged towards the blonde kid and grabbed him, running towards a door which he assumed would lead inside the base.

"I've been looking for you!" the neko said with a serious tone, leaving no room for objection.

●ω●

Zoro had watched the straw hat boy, which he found out his name was Luffy, run towards the marine base with no weapons at all. He had been tied to the cross for some minutes before he finally heard a loud sound which sounded as if something had just broke, followed by a loud yell that he, for some reason, felt an extreme hatred to, even though he had never heard it before. He thought he was going to be alone for the rest of the day but apparently that wasn't true since the pink-haired kid who was with Luffy when they were watching him from the wall had walked over to him and had asked a few questions, which he found no reason not to respond to them.

He had explained to him that Luffy had entered inside the base to find his katana, but he also should've known that he was also going to ask about the neko tail and such. He had asked Zoro if he knew about Luffy being a neko to which he explained a neko's keen sense of smell and that he had only guessed. At his statement, the kid had finally realized that he meant that he also was a neko.

What surprised the swordsman though was that the chubby pink-haired kid had walked closer to him and had starting undoing his binds on the cross. "Oi! If you help me, they are going to kill you!"

Almost immediately, the kid snarled not at him but at the marines, "You shouldn't be arrested! I can't stand those kinds of marines! I'm going to become a real marine! Just like the way Luffy-san is determined to become the pirate king!" he continued to work on his ropes.

"What? Pirate king? You're joking, right?" the neko was surprised enough as it is. Before, he had watched Luffy go up to him and completely forget about why he wanted him there in the first place, he had watched said person invade the marines' base and now he learned that his dream was to become the 'Pirate King'. Honestly, this _Luffy_ continued to surprise him.

"Hehehe… I was a bit shocked when I first heard his dream, but he's serious!" The kid smiled, not looking at Zoro as he continued to work on his binds. But, soon after he had said that, the kid flew back away from him, blood flying everywhere from his shoulder. The kids' round glasses, due to the sudden impact, were sent flying as well. Zoro should've known they were going to do that and he should've suspected that they were going to use guns because of the smell of gunpowder at the top of the building. He shifted his gaze from the wounded kid in front of him to the top of the building, glaring at the person he knew was there.

●ω●

The raven-haired neko continued to tug on Helmeppo's collar, practically choking him as a few marines chased after them. Said marines had ordered the soon-to-be pirate to stop where he was but why would anyone do that honestly? He looked over at the boy in his grasp and yelled at him as they ran, "Where's Zoro's katana?!"

"I'll tell! I'll tell! Just stop dragging me!" He hollered as well, grabbing onto his captors' hands.

"Okay! Spill it!" He said finally stopping.

"They're inside my room. We-We already ran past it."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" The neko said punching his victim. His tail swayed murderously. After he had punched the boy, three marines had finally caught up, but once they were about to say 'freeze', they had noticed his tail. They snapped out of it and Luffy smelled a bit of guilt, probably because nekos were so rare, and raised their guns to shoot at him, all the while telling him not to move and to put his hands above his head, to which he replied by a blunt 'no'.

The neko then proceeded to calmly raise his 'hostage' in front of him as a shield. He then commenced to run all the while holding Helmeppo in the air. "Go ahead and shoot!"

"What?! You're actually using Helmeppo-sama as your shield!" One of the marines yelled.

The poor hostage continued to scream, pleading and begging the marines not to shoot.

●ω●

The green-haired neko watched as Luffy's friend cried and squirmed on the floor, wailing as his wound bled even more. He yelled some more, screaming out that he was going to die. If Zoro knew anything, it was that the kid shouldn't panic or else it would get worse. "Are you alright?" He asked calmly. He barely knew the kid so he didn't care much for him, but he had tried to help him earlier so he at least wanted to know if he was okay, and besides, that Luffy kid had trusted this kid enough to show him what he truly was. Those types of people were rare. Sometimes, humans only wanted money to go into a bar and waste themselves. There were almost none—from what he knew—that didn't desire riches. "Run for your life. They're almost here." He said looking back.

The kid panted some more, laying on his back as he took broken breaths, "No! I've… got to set you free as soon as possible."

"There is no need to worry about me. As long as I can survive his for a month, they'll set me free. Hurry up and lea—" he was interrupted by the kid on the floor.

"THEY WILL NOT SET YOU FREE!" Zoro could tell that he had used up most of his energy saying those words. He was surprised to say the least, that, when he took a small whiff, he realized there were no lies in his statement, "BECAUSE THEY ARE GOING TO KILL YOU IN THREE DAYS!"

Zoro didn't believe this, "Nonsense! That bastard promised me that if I could survive this for a month, he'd free me…" He didn't know what he was saying anymore. Why would he believe such a guy anyway? There were no false words in the previous statement form the kid and the bastard son didn't seem like someone who could keep a promise anyway.

"He never intended to keep his promise!" He said struggling to put on his glasses, "That's why Luffy-san punched him on your behalf… because he was toying with you!" he looked and smelled exhausted.

Zoro was shocked. He was usually never too surprised about many things but straight out punching someone… on his behalf? That had never once happened to him. "Wh-What did you just say…?!" was all he could say.

"The navy will never let the two of you off! Please! After I set you free, please help Luffy-san!" Zoro stared on, surprised by the plea, "Luffy-san is very strong! As long as you two join forces, you all will definitely be able to escape this town! Definitely!"

So he was wrong. This was going to be the first time the saying was going to reveal itself for him. If what the kid said was true, then he would be able to see strength from what one would misjudge and say, _'Sorry kid, weaklings are unimportant.'_ He was looking forward to see that.

Once the kid had told him that, many marines rushed to where the pair was and held up their guns, ready to aim and fire. "That's enough! The two of you who have betrayed Lieutenant Morgan die here!" Zoro widened his eyes in horror when he saw the group of marines corner him while he was still tied to a stupid cross. He didn't want to die there. He had important things to do, a dream to complete.

The marines loaded their guns as they prepared to fire by the command of Lieutenant Morgan who stood proudly from behind them, eager to watch the show. "Roronoa Zoro… I've heard of your name from a long time ago, but do not underestimate me. Before my great strength, you're just garbage!" He rested his axe hand on top of his shoulder. "Ready!"

Zoro's heart had accelerated a good speed. His tail was a bit puffed up from inside his pants but his ears laid even further down his head hidden away from view. _I can't die here… I still have things I need to settle! Because I made a promise!_ Scenes of his memories flashed inside his mind. He had lost so many times and he had been made fun of his rival. He had yelled out to everyone his dream and he engaged in a fight with real katana with her. He had lost to her and yet, she had told him he would win one day because he was a man and not a woman. Then, they had made a vow only for her to pass away. But, during his childhood, because of her death, he had inherited her katana and was now slowly achieving his dream.

 _I made a promise... I cannot die here!_

And he didn't.

●ω●

"Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy held onto the window sill as he tied the three katana onto his back. The window in question wasn't one could open, just there for decoration, so his only option was to crash into it and make it outside. He had witnessed what was going on in the courtyard and he saw the state Coby was in, so, he had no time to go to the courtyard by foot. Instead, he was going there by rubber.

"ROCKET!" he flung himself and broke the window with a loud crash. Down below, he heard a big guy bark out the order 'fire' and judging by the speed he was going, he was going to make it in time. A wide grin made it to his face as he landed in front of both Zoro and Coby and stretched his arms and legs out, taking all the bullets and not letting one slip pass him, all the while looking down and trembling a bit. He heard Coby yell out his name and Zoro gawk at him. The onion smell in the air was evident.

A few tears made it to his eyes but they quickly dried out just as fast as a cheetah on steroids. He felt the parts of his body that had been shot stretch behind him, appearing as if someone had stuck many long sticks through his body and stretching his skin to the other side. He felt his skin quickly retract to its original place as the bullets sprung out when he stood straight. "It's no use!" Immediately, all the bullets shot back to the ones who had shot in the first place. Luffy continued to laugh with his arms and legs spread wide apart, his grin practically consuming his whole face.

"What kind of person are you?" Zoro yelled at Luffy, not believing his eyes.

Luffy looked back at Zoro who was gawking at him and from the corner of his eye, he saw Coby faint from shock, "I am the one who will become the pirate king!" he said with a grin. He closed the space between him and Zoro and unstrapped the three katana from his back and held them in between them, "Look. Which one is your treasured katana? I couldn't figure it out, so I brought all three of them."

Zoro stared at Luffy in the eye and calmed down a bit, "All three belong to me. I use three katana." He stated.

Luffy stared at him as well and smiled mischievously. "Resisting the navy here together with me will make you an outlaw! Or maybe you want to die here?" the raven-haired neko looked at the vast group of marines sprawled on the floor.

Zoro grinned a shark-like way and glared at the other neko, "Are you the offspring of a devil? Forget it… rather than to die here, why don't I just accede your request… and become a pirate!"

Luffy raised his fists in the air as he celebrated his success in getting his first crewmate. His black tail swayed contently as he happily did a dance with Zoro's swords consisting of him holding them out in front of him and bobbing up and down. "Yes! I have a companion!" Luffy celebrated.

"Okay, hurry up and get these ropes off me!" Zoro tried to stop him from celebrating. Emphasis on 'tried'. Although he was the one who should be happy of finally being able to walk again, there was just so much sweetness in the air. It literally smelled like a billion carnivals of pure candy had been placed upon miles of fresh, cut grass. It should be nice for him for such a positive change from all the fear and anger, but the amount of happiness was just incredible. Had he really been wanted this much?

After Luffy had stopped celebrating, he dropped the three katana on the ground softly (because he didn't want to ruin his crewmate's treasure) and started working what Coby had left unfinished, since he was still out cold on the floor. While he worked, he spoke with his new crewmate about nekos, specifically about him.

"So, what kind of cat are you?" Luffy asked Zoro.

"Hm?" He finally realized what he meant. "Oh, tiger."

"Really? I haven't seen a tiger neko, yet. Nice to know that one of my crewmembers is one." Luffy said with a smile. "I'm a black panther, if you didn't know."

Zoro grinned and chuckled, "I guess it should've been kind of obvious, seeing how your tail has spots."

"You can see them? Most people don't even notice the spots unless I point it out to them." Luffy looked quite surprised, but he should've guessed it was because Zoro was a neko as well.

"Of course I can." He simply said.

There was some silence between the two before Luffy started again. "Hey, why don't you take out your tail?"

"And why exactly would I do that?" the tiger neko asked.

"The marines and some of the townspeople already saw what I am. I'm sure there is no problem as long as they don't tell anyone."

"What if they do?!"

"Well, we'll be pirates. If the marines want us because we're nekos, then we have no problem fighting them off."

Zoro thought about it for a moment before he sighed. He truly didn't know how to argue against that and it was worse that it was someone like Luffy who had said that, because, for some odd reason, he just knew that his new pirate captain was an idiot. For a moment, he wondered he had a new ability to sense someone's idiocy or stupidity because he could clearly smell it, even though nothing dumb was happening during their small chat, unless of course what the straw hat captain had said had just come out without any thought and it somehow came out smart. "Guess you have a point there…" He said defeated.

There was a bit more silence between the two since Luffy was working hard on his binds and Zoro was having some trouble freeing his tail from inside his trousers since the waist of the pants was kind of tight and he couldn't really loosen it up seeing how his arms were tied up. Zoro looked over to where the marines were and realized they were charging at the trio with readied swords. "Oi! Hurry up!" He ushered Luffy. He had stopped trying to free his tail since he definitely had something bigger to worry about.

"That's strange… the knot got tighter…" he stated with a slight whimper. "How do I open this?"

Suddenly, the two heard a scream of terror come from the pink-haired boy, followed by an onion smell. "Luffy! Zoro! Watch out!"

The two ignored him as Luffy continued to try to untie the ropes. "Could you stop taking my time? You're so noisy!" Luffy told both he and Zoro.

"We don't have time for you to take your time!" Zoro cleverly said (well, I think it's clever).

"Oh!" Luffy suddenly smiled and held up the rope that he was working on, showing it to Zoro as if he had accomplished the most important thing in the world yet he only expressed it with a small smile. "I untied one side! Looky!" his tail waved happily.

"Idiot! Hurry and get my swords!" Zoro yelled at him. Luffy did as told and passed Zoro one of his swords.

Before he could blink, he felt a soft wind pass by him towards the direction of the herd of marines. When the black leopard looked, he was simply amazed by the sight before him.

The swordsman had managed to snatch his two leftover swords and managed to put one in his mouth, all the while blocking two swords with each one of his. The other thing that had amazed him was his tail and tiger-like aura.

When Zoro had told him he was a tiger, he was expecting an orange or brown tail, but, he was surprised to see that his tail was pure white with perfectly formed stripes with a black tip. Makino and the other villagers had always told him that tigers were one of the most majestic large cats in the world, and now he understood why. Even though the swordsman had left and stopped every other sword, he had left almost no trace that he had been on the cross because there was no evidence, except for the ones who did see him. The wind he had felt would easily be mistaken as a simple breeze or wind, not a tiger swordsman.

His aura was stunning as well. As soon as he got a hold of all three of his swords, Zoro's aura practically changed from formidable and intimidation to one of power and danger. In actuality, it felt like a savage beast had been released as soon as he got to feel all three swords. That beast was not one to be messed with, seeing how being many feet away and so on, Luffy could still feel his monstrous aura. He knew that the tiger had been waiting for this.

Luffy gawked at the tiger's power, simply amazed, "Cool!"

Zoro looked behind him and glared at the marines with tiger-like eyes. He imagined because of the quick movements that nobody had yet noticed his tail but he was okay with that. The only way he managed to actually freeing his tail was by going at extreme speeds which managed to loosen the waist a bit. "All of you better not move. Make one move and I'll kill you." He said rather calmly. This immediately caused all the marines to tremble in fear and cry.

He then looked at Luffy as his aura calmed down a bit. "I already told you I'd be a pirate with you. Either way, after this incident with the marines I'll be an outlaw too, but it's okay. I still have my own goals! I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman! I no longer care if my name is clean or not. Bad guy, good guy, it no longer matters! As long as my name is known worldwide!" Zoro felt his white tail bristle dangerously, "if you do something that ends up in the way of my goal, I will have to cut your stomach open to say sorry!"

Instead of feeling intimidated, Luffy ended up smiling, "Good! To be the world's number one swordsman! Since you're gonna be the pirate king's crew member, if you can't even accomplish something that small, then I would be very embarrassed as well!"

"Heh, well said!"

Suddenly, the man standing at the very back of his marine soldiers started to yell out in anger, much to the displeasure of Luffy and Zoro's sensitive cat ears. "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS STANDING THERE FOR?! HURRY UP AND FINISH THOSE TWO UP!"

Luffy grinned and prepared to kick something, "Zoro, duck!" Zoro did as told and lowered both his head and swords, not knowing what he was going to do, "Gomu Gomu no…Whip!" All the marines that had been blocked by Zoro were immediately thrown back by the neko's leg (or in the last guy's case, the foot).

Once all the marines had fallen onto the floor, Zoro looked back at Luffy with a confused glance and asked him what he was, to which Luffy responded, "I'm a rubberman!" with his leg still raised high.

Zoro and Luffy got up without any worries, as if they were saying that their abilities went on much further. They weren't really listening to the cries of the marines, saying the two teens were too strong, but what had caught their attention was the gruff voice of the marine lieutenant, ordering the marines that had just said that to shoot themselves in the head, saying he didn't need useless soldiers. The trio shifted their gazes to the group of marines and Zoro and Coby just stared in shock. "What the hell do these dumb marines think they're doing?!" the white tiger growled, his tail shaking agitatedly.

Before he could attack though (or defend the marines), his new captain had lunged himself towards the lieutenant, using his leopard genes to get a further jump, and punched him, only to be blocked by Morgan's axe.

The new pirate captain felt everyone's gaze's fall on him, as if each one of them held a special hope for something. Zoro on the other hand, was gazing at him for a different reason. He wanted to see just how strong his new captain was and Luffy was not going to disappoint him. Morgan ripped of his marine coat and held out his axe, blabbering on about how people without status had no right to oppose him.

"I am marine lieutenant Axe-Hand Morgan!' he yelled out, charging at Luffy.

"My name is Luffy!" The neko said calmly, preparing to evade, "Nice to meet you!"

The marine lieutenant sliced where Luffy was, only to have him jump as he held his hat and curled his black, long tail around his waist, so that it wouldn't be chopped off. Luffy was still in the air when the wired fence next to them was slice horizontally in half, but he evaded it so he didn't really care. Instead, he lifted his knees closer to his chest and when he was right in front of the marine, he retracted his legs like a snake and met with the man's face, sending him crashing towards the ground.

He quickly got up though and attempted to attack once more, using his protruding elbow as the handle of his 'axe-hand'. He raised it up high and slashed at the ground, missing again. Luffy, using his flexible and cat-like body to evade all sorts of attacks. He twirled in the air for a few seconds and smirked, "I'm not dead yet!" he chuckled. He halted his spins and landed another kick to the marine's face, successfully sending him to the ground again.

The black leopard landed gracefully on top of Morgan and grabbed him by the collar, preparing to punch him over and over again. "Some great marine you are… destroyed Coby's dreams and goal…!" He wanted to say more but an annoying voice called out wait before he could continue. He ignored the voice and punched his victim over and over again, not changing his gaze at all.

"You idiot! I told you to wait!" the voice called out again. Luffy knew who was calling him but he really didn't care. "If you want this guy to survive, then don't move! If anyone moves, I'll shoot!" Luffy looked at Helmeppo and got up from on top of Morgan, glaring at the (ugly) blonde teen.

Luffy and Zoro watched as Coby trembled a bit, being held at gunpoint and all. "Luffy! I… I don't wanna be in your way…I'm not afraid of death!"

Luffy smiled and giggled a bit. "Okay, I know!" The black neko forced his arm out as he grabbed it with his left, preparing to stretch and punch. "You stupid son! Coby's not afraid of death!"

"Hey! You idiot! I told you not to move or I'm gonna shoot!" Luffy and Zoro both smelled the sweat drip from the blonde kid. He was obviously terrified.

Luffy readied his body to stretch his arm as Coby warned him about something being behind him, though Luffy didn't look back. He had faith in his crewmate. "Gomu Gomu no…" He started to say, readying his arm. He heard the gruff and angry voice of the lieutenant behind him, but even then, he still didn't look back.

Zoro lifted his sword and clamped it in between his mouth, knowing what he had to do. "Pistol!" Right when his captain had said that, he used the same speed from before and charged in between the marine and his captain, and in one quick swipe, the captain laid motionless, standing high above the black leopard.

Luffy punched Helmeppo on his cheek, sending him flying a good few feet away from Coby. "Nice! Zoro!" he said at Zoro, who stood behind him, resting his arms as they laid limp without any force. Morgan then fell on the floor, a wide gash in his vest and abdomen.

"Leave it to me, captain." He said looking back at Luffy, who wore a wide smile.

 **Yep. I'm really combining these.**

 **(One) Piece out!**


	2. Chapter 2: Circus

Chapter 2: Circus

 **Yeah… Um, yeah… still combining.**

Luffy and Zoro stood there, waiting for the next challenger. When none came, Zoro looked at the group of marines and sheathed his swords and glared at the marines, "If you still want to arrest us, come and get us." He said coolly.

Both nekos could smell the fear subside and transform into confusion. Luffy thought nothing of the silence between the two groups but Zoro mused silently to himself, thinking that the marines had finally noticed his swaying tail. To experiment, he swayed his tail a bit harder to the sides and sure enough, the marines flinched but finally realized what the moving appendage was. He heard them murmur something about Roronoa Zoro being a neko as well as the other kid, making them think they were originally teammates before, but the thick and awkward atmosphere suddenly lifted and everyone threw their weapons and hats in the air, celebrating about the defeat of their leader.

Luffy was surprised to see all the marines happy about the defeat of Morgan but Coby smiled as he came to the conclusion that even the marines detested their leader.

Zoro felt his body rapidly weaken as his tail bristled strangely. He had never felt the feeling of starvation before and normally after fighting, he would get real hungry but not once had he almost been starved, fought and continued to stand. He felt his legs weaken as his stomach grumbled weakly, weakened by the ordeal. Soon enough, he collapsed on the floor as he heard the worried cries of his captain and the pink-haired boy. "Hungry…" he managed to whimper.

●ω●

Zoro laughed heartily as he felt both he and his stomach enjoy the food that he received.

During the trip from out of the marine base and to the restaurant, Luffy had somehow managed to convince Zoro to keep his tail out and remove his bandana, which he only did when he entered the restaurant. For him, it was strange to reveal a secret he had kept hidden for so long and not only that, but reveal it to complete strangers. He didn't mind Rika or Coby (he learned his name during the small walk to the restaurant) knowing about his ears and tail because Luffy trusted them and so did he, but to have the whole town know that he was a neko was uncomfortable.

But, at that moment, he didn't mind the extra attention.

He patted his stomach in delight when he finally had his fill and the delicious meal served to him. His ears were much like a tiger's. It was still pointed because of the second form of a neko, but it was rounded around some corners. The backside of his ears were black while the tuft inside his ear was pure white with some small, unnoticeable stripes here and there. His tail was much the same way, except for the backside part. His tail was literally as white as snow that would make a poacher hunt him down just for a small piece of his fur.

"I'm full! Haven't eaten for nine days, almost starved to death!" He said with a wide smile.

He could feel the townspeople's eyes set at both him and Luffy, eyeing their cat features. He even toyed with them by flicking his tail when they least suspected it and twitching his ears when someone outside would talk about the movement prior. It really made him laugh internally. He wouldn't dare let out such a playful laugh in front of everyone, even though he had revealed a lot already. "Then it's impossible for you to last a month." Luffy said as he continued to eat through plenty of plates.

"You're so scrawny. How come you can still eat more than me?" The tiger asked Luffy, sincerely confused by his captain's huge appetite.

Rika walked over to Luffy while he continued to eat and complimented him on his strength, causing his tail to wave contently at the compliment. "Yep! I'm strong! I'll get stronger later on!" he said about to take a sip from his cup.

Zoro watched the two continue to talk. He still had a few scars mostly on his face and arms. "Oh yeah, what are your plans next?" He asked Luffy.

"I'm going to head for the Grand Line!" he said proudly.

Immediately, Coby shot up from his seat and started to shout, "WHAT?! You're saying crazy things again! Just you two, how can you enter the Grand Line? Don't you understand? The world's strongest pirates gather there!"

Zoro grinned and set his arm on the table in a more comfortable position, "We're going for One Piece. It won't hurt to head for that direction." He stated, stilly content on having eaten.

"Zoro-san, even you're saying rubbish!"

"What are you so worried about?" The swordsman wondered. "It's not like you're coming with us."

The pink-haired boy slammed his hands on the table, "Even though I'm not going, I still worry! Can't I? Can't I worry about you?" Zoro had no words. "Luffy-san, even though we just met, we are friends!"

"Yep! Even though we have to part, we'll always be friends!" Luffy grinned happily. Coby then continued to tell them about his childhood and how he never had friends growing up and that he was always picked on. In the end, he said that the two nekos had taught him to live out his dream. "That's why we're heading for the Grand Line." Luffy said. Zoro agreed as well.

"That's true…" Coby said rubbing the back of his head. "No! No! What I meant is, you're too reckless!" he quickly corrected himself.

Zoro grabbed one of his katana and bumped the butt of the hilt on Coby's forehead, surprising him a bit by the lack of force he used, "First of all, you'd better worry about yourself." The pink-haired kid asked why. "Even though you were just doing chores on a pirate ship, you're still a small pirate. Don't underestimate the marine's ability to gather information. If they know your past, they won't let you join." He said with a strange calm voice.

Right when he had said that, the restaurant door opened and a marine came in with his arms crossed behind his back as he politely said 'Excuse me'. "We are wondering, are you really pirates?' The marine asked. He had stared at both Luffy and Zoro before with a surprised face, but after shaking his head a bit, he returned to the topic.

"Yes, I just found my first crew member, so that would make us pirates now!" Luffy said happily.

"Even though you are pirates in reality, you saved our town and base. For that we are grateful." Zoro waited for the catch, "But," There it was, "Since you are pirates, as marines we cannot allow you to stay any longer. Please leave this place immediately. As for the events that occurred here, we will be reporting it to the headquarters." After he had said that, the crowd of townspeople immediately went against the idea of kicking out their saviors.

Luffy stared at the marine and a small frown made way to his face, "Will you tell them about what we are?" He asked. The marine shook his head with a confident 'no'. With that, Luffy smiled but quickly masked it with a serious expression. "Well then, let's go! Thank you for your food ma'am." Luffy and Zoro got up from their seats and walked past Coby without speaking any words.

Zoro walked out of the restaurant with Luffy tailing behind him, but they stopped when they realized that the marine officer had told the pirates to hold on. "Is he telling the truth?" Luffy turned around and pointed at Coby, saying he knew what the kid used to do. After he had said that, he continued to tell the story of him on the pirate ship with the female pirate, making fun of her and stating that he didn't know where. He then went on and said that Coby had spent two years with her, but when Luffy smelled a damp, blood-like smell, he stopped his rant and allowed the smaller boy to punch him in the face. The smell from before was nothing other than distrust.

Zoro stilled his tail for a moment before it started to sway contently again. He was proud of his choice of captain. "You! You deserve a beating!" the black haired neko said before he started to continuously punch the smaller boy senseless, only stopping when his first crewmember grabbed him by the hoodie of his sweater and somewhat scolding him as he did so, saying he went overboard.

Suddenly, the marine that had asked the pirates to leave politely pointed at the pair, mostly directed at Luffy, and yelled at them, finally realizing that the pirates were indeed not friends with Coby and that they were to leave the town immediately, leaving no room for argument, even though the pirates didn't plan to.

Luffy and Zoro did as told and left the building, only smiling once they left the building. Zoro teased the marines outside a bit, much to his enjoyment. "Come on. Didn't you want to arrest me?" his tail waved amusingly, enjoying the stutters from the marines.

●ω●

While walking towards the boat Luffy owned while he traveled with Coby, Zoro looked back at where they had come from and grinned, looking at his captain. "Nice act. This way, even though he's been a pirate before, it wouldn't be such a big deal."

Luffy looked at Zoro and finally made it to the port where the boats were. "I believe Coby will become stronger and more independent in the future!"

As they drew closer to the boat, the two nekos noticed a small white dog barking angrily at their boat. Luffy had a perplexed look but Zoro smirked. "I'm guessing this is your boat."

"Stupid dog." Luffy said before running towards the small creature and started to bark at it even angrier than what the dog had been doing. After a few seconds, the dog gave up and ran away.

"Anyway," Zoro started, helping Luffy with the boat, "Time to go, or else there's no telling what else will happen. Not leaving anything behind, that's what pirates are about." He finished his speech.

"That's what I'm saying!" Luffy said while he laughed.

The tiger grinned at his captain but both he and Luffy perked their ears at the sound of footsteps drawing closer to them. Because of a neko's unique ability to identify someone by their footsteps, they knew who they were going to meet the next second. The pirates looked behind them and watched as Coby panted from his run. What happened next surprised Zoro but not as much as Luffy. Coby raised his arm next to his face and took in a deep breath. "Thank you very much! I will never forget you for the rest of my life!"

"Never thought I'd see the day where a marine is saluting to pirates." Zoro laughed.

"Coby! We'll meet again!" Luffy waved his hand as he and Zoro got on the small boat, sailing away from the port.

Before they knew it, the nekos heard many more unrecognizable footsteps but smiled at what they saw. "Group salute!" the marine captain from before saluted as well, all the marines following both his and Coby's examples.

Zoro stared off into the distance, smiling at the refined smells. He remembered everything from his past. Every single time he would walk in publicity, the disgusting smell of onion and the very visible yellow gas was very evident, it just felt so nice to smell happiness for once, and the voice of his cheerful captain made his decision of becoming a pirate seemed not so bad, since he imagined that every moment he was going to be spending in this growing pirate crew was only going to be filled with the odor of cake and grass.

"Yahoo!" We're off!" The tiger enjoyed the smell. He didn't even have to look at the other neko who had said that to understand how much cheerfulness and merriment was put inside those few words, "Grand Line! Here we come!" he finished, throwing his fists into the air as his tail waved ever so contently.

Strange. He didn't mind being with the other neko, even though he was a pirate.

●ω●

During some time on the small boat, a few panda owls had flown onto the rim of the boat. For a moment, the two nekos wanted to capture the birds and stuff them in their mouths but when Luffy had raised his hand to his head to block out the sun, the owls had done the same, intriguing the two. Both Luffy and Zoro communicated with the owls and one had even grown a special affection for the swordsman, surprising mostly him.

Once they had left, the pair had regretted their decision of not capturing at least one because only after a few minutes, Luffy had already started whining about being hungry. "It's funny that you have absolutely no navigational skills." Zoro said trying to change the topic. During the whole time they had set out to sea, Luffy had been complaining about hunger.

"Why? I've always been just wandering." His captain said as if it was the most casual and normal thing in the world. "You're like me too, wandering and capturing hunted pirates for rewards." He explained.

"I don't remember me saying that I live completely off of rewards." He said resting his head on his arm with was resting on top of the rim of the boat. "I was searching for a man, that's why I left to the sea, but now I can't find my way home…" towards the end of his sentence, he changed his tone more to a whisper. "I had no choice but to start hunting pirates for a living, just to get a little bit for the living expenses…"

"Oh, so you're lost?" Luffy asked bluntly.

"Shut up! You are the one who's lost!" He retorted. "Geez… never heard of a pirate who doesn't know how to navigate. How do you expect to go to the Grand Line like this? You should hurry and find a crewmate who knows how to navigate."

"And someone who knows how to cook, and someone for singing…" The black leopard said as he counted said people off of his fingers.

"Idiot! What are you going off on?!"

After he had said that, the two immediately collapsed onto the deck and sighed, whining about hunger. "At least we have water…" Zoro said, not sounding the least bit hopeful. But, it was true what he had said. A neko may resemble a human more physically but they acted a lot like cats as well, both physically and mentally. In the case of water, cats have specialized kidneys that allow them to drink sea water and hydrate themselves when needed, which definitely turned out handy and would hopefully turn out just as handy in the future. "Oh, a bird." Zoro pointed out high above the pair.

"Looks pretty tasty…" Luffy said. There was a bit of silence between the two, the only thing that was actually heard were the squawks of said bird. "LET'S EAT THAT BIRD!" Luffy spouted excitedly.

"How are you going to eat it?" Zoro asked curiously, his white tail reacted the same.

"I'll go get it! Watch my specialty!" Luffy grabbed the top of the mast by stretching his arms. "Rocket!" in less than a second, he had released his weight and had flown towards the bird, somewhat impressing Zoro but at the same time, surprising him.

He raised his hand over his forehead to cover the blinding rays of the sun, too lazy to turn his eyes into smaller pupils. "Can't believe he thought of that…" He said. His ears perked when he heard a snapping sound, something that sounded much like something clamping on something else. When he heard the scream of his captain, his eyes instinctively turned into slits so that he would be able to see what was happening even better. Once the bird started to move faster, Luffy's screams filled the air as he cried for help. Zoro finally realized what the situation both he and his captain were in and screamed 'idiot' at his captain. His ears were laid back and his tail was puffed much more than he was comfortable with on his daily life.

When he was quickly going further away, he grabbed the paddles and started to row like a mad man, the boat going surprisingly fast. "What the heck are you doing?! Jeez!" he said as he continued to row, not sure that the other neko would be able to hear him seeing that they were very far apart.

While rowing, he heard a few voices, sounding a bit gurgled, as if drowning. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a few figures splashing in the water, thrashing over the waves. "There are people in trouble too?" He was beyond pissed now. He didn't want to stop and wait for the people to _slowly_ climb in. He had a captain to rescue and he had no time to stall. "I don't have the time to stop! You guys get on yourselves!" In the span of just one second, the three drowning people managed to climb onto the boat, much to his surprise and amusement. "Heh! Your climbing skills aren't bad!" He grinned as he continued to eye the bird in the sky.

"Were you trying to run us over?!" One of the people asked.

Although he had to keep an eye out for the bird taking his captain, he couldn't help but listen to their conversation. He turned his ears to their direction and listened to the trio's conversation.

"Thank god!"

"Why is this guy so reckless!?"

Before he knew it, one of the guys took out a sword and threatened the neko. "Hey! Stop the boat! This is the pirate Buggy-sa—" Zoro perked his ears and realized that they were in plain view as well as his tail. They had probably just noticed so before they could strike, he glared at the trio and growled.

"What…?!" he growled out, his tail whipping violently.

●ω●

The 'pirates' chuckled nervously to themselves as they pardoned for their deeds, stating that they didn't know that he was 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro. "You three made me lose track of my friend!" He said glaring at them. It felt nice to call someone else 'friend'. He once had friends but because he had gotten lost one day, he was separated from them and he had yet to see them again, if not, ever. "Put some back into it! If I don't find my friend, you three are in for it!" He paused for a moment. The pirates silently mumbled to themselves about how the famous 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro was a being from an incredibly rare species and how they were at the mercy of him. "Oh yeah, why were the three of you drifting in the middle of the ocean?" He asked drinking a bit of the sea water. He was a bit dehydrated from the rowing. If you could call it that.

"Yes, yes, yes! Good question, you finally asked!" One of the pirates spouted out. It was obvious they were on the verge of crapping themselves.

"That girl!" One of the pirates said.

"Yeah! That bad girl!" The one who had spoken to him earlier chimed in from the middle.

"But, she's real cute, too!" The third one was useless and it seemed to be the same way for the middle pirate because he punched him as if he had said something horrible.

He listened to their story about how a girl had just completely owned them by tricking them in the funniest way possible. The girl had tricked them into thinking that she had been ship wrecked and that she would give them a treasure chest if they gave her water and food. They had boarded her boat as they cracked open the chest only to find that it was empty and that she had stolen both their boat and the treasure they had on it. After that, there was a storm and they boat they were on was completely obliterated.

"She can predict the weather…? This girl must be something special." Zoro's tail was waving crazy. He wasn't mad. In fact, he was a bit excited to know that there existed normal humans in the world who knew about weather. It wasn't as surprising as it would be normally, but being a neko, they had a natural sense of just knowing if a storm was brewing.

"Can you stop moving your tail like that?! It's annoying!" One of the pirates said, being interrupted by their rant of the girl to their captain named Buggy.

Hearing this, Zoro's tail thrashed even harder, slamming onto the deck. A wide smirk appeared on his smug face as he rested his head on his hand and continued to slam it. "And if I don't?" He said, baring a few sharp teeth. This scared the pirates but he calmed his tail and leaned on the sides of the boat. "Who's Buggy?" He asked, realizing he hadn't heard of his name before, even though it did sound oddly familiar.

The pirate calmed down as well as he was no longer seething, "He's our pirate leader, haven't you ever heard of 'Buggy the Clown'? He's a dangerous man who ate one of the devil fruits." He said, now sweating.

"Ate a devil fruit?" the tiger thought about Luffy and how after eating a devil fruit, his body became rubber. _This is going to be interesting._

●ω●

Luffy was tired of hanging from the bird's mouth. He wished Zoro would just cut down the bird and free him but he didn't even see the boat anymore and instead they were flying above a town. But, even though he had gone through all that, he wasn't expecting to see a cannon ball head towards his and the bird's direction. Once the cannon ball had hit the bird, he was immediately seat free from the beak of the bird, but, he found himself rocketing towards the ground faster than ever. He let out a surprised but excited scream—like when one is on a roller-coaster—and crashed onto the stone streets, successfully creating a large crater. "Why did they shoot me with the cannon? Damn it…" He said as he placed his hat on his head. While he was falling, he spotted a few figures so he used the smoke to his advantage and tucked in his tail.

He let out a relieved breath and sighed, "Finally landed!" He said still holding his hat on top of his head. He heard the surprised voices of the other people behind him but his attention was caught when the girl in front of him stood up, intertwined her fingers together and spoke to him.

"Oh, boss!" He was confused now, "You're finally here… I've been waiting for you to save me! I'll leave everything to you!" She said before running down the streets, leaving him even more confused than before.

Once she ran off, he turned to look at the three men with weapons who were glaring down at him, mostly because he was half their size.

"She ran off again!"

"We don't have to chase that girl anymore. Her boss is still here!" Luffy was even more confused than before. So much so that he became even more confused when he thought about just how confused he was.

"That's true! They're together anyways!"

"Am I right? Boss!" One of the men slapped off the hat off of Luffy's head, revealing his black ears. Without a second thought, he punched the man right in the face and quickly shuffled to pick up his hat and set it on his head.

"Don't you dare mess up my hat!" He wasn't concerned about being confused anymore. Right now, he was beyond pissed.

When the other two armed men charged, Luffy took no time punching them, successfully knocking them out cold. "Wow!" He recognized the voice and followed where he heard it. "You beat those guys with swords bare-handed!" she said, clearly amazed.

"Who are you anyways?" Luffy stated, clearly not understanding that she had set him up.

"I am a thief who only steals treasure from pirates!' She said connecting the points of her index finger and thumb together. "My name is Nami. Want to be partners?"

Just as quick as he finished beating up the guys from before, he quickly replied, "No."

"No way!" The neko said before walking away.

"Hang on a second!" The girl named Nami said, jumping off the roof of the house and landing behind Luffy. "So what's that hat?" She suddenly asked, pointed at it from next to the black leopard, "When you said they nearly damaged it, you got so mad! Is t expensive?"

Luffy didn't look at her but replied either way, "This is my treasure." He held onto his hat with one hand, just in case if she decided to snatch it from his head and reveal his cat ears.

She brightened up hearing this, and Luffy, having just met her, didn't know what to think of it, but if she planned on stealing his hat, then he'd have no choice but to retrieve it.

●ω●

Luffy sat on a chair cross legged in a house he didn't know who it belonged to. He had explained to her that he was separated from his crew. "So you got separated from your crew… how many people are in your crew?" she asked him.

"Only one." He gazed at the house and studied it for a moment, "Is this your house?" he asked a question back.

"No. I don't even know whose house this is." His ears perked up from underneath his hat. "Everyone in this village is hiding in a shelter outside of the town. They are trying to avoid conflict with the Buggy pirate fleet." She explained to him. He thought about something for a moment before he spoke again.

"Hmm. Is he that scary? The pirate called Nami?" He looked at her seriously, not remembering whose name was whose.

"I'm Nami!" She glared at him. "The pirate is Buggy! Don't switch the names!" she calmed down and spoke again, "About Buggy… he's a famous pirate, known for his love of cannons. When a bunch of kids from a village where he once stayed made fun of his nose, he used a cannon to wipe out the whole village and, it's said that he's got a really strange power." She finished.

"But then why isn't there anyone in this village?" He asked seriously.

"I JUST SAID THEY'RE AVOIDING CONFLICT! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO ALL THIS TIME?!" she slammed her hand on the table, clearly pissed.

"Aha! So you're stealing from these empty houses!" He asked her, smiling.

"THAT'S DESPICABLE! DIDN'T I JUST TELL YOU I ONLY STEAL FROM PIRATES!?" she rested her hand on her forehead, "Don't even compare me with those common house robbers! It's so tiring talking with you!"

The neko crossed his arms as he continued to laugh, "Calm down."

She sighed but a smile tugged at the sides of her mouth, "My goal is to get a hundred million beri! Then I'm going to buy a certain village."

"Buy a village? A hundred million beri is a lot, so you have to steal from a lot of pirates." Luffy concluded.

"I've got a plan for that. Look!" She pulled out a map from a pocket from her skirt, "This is the Grand Line map I just stole! I'm going to steal some treasure from this Buggy guy, then I'm going to go to the Grand Line. Then, I'm going to steal from even greater pirates who carry much more treasure! What do you think? Don't you wanna team up and earn a bunch? You look strong, I could use your power, and then you'll get your share too!"

Luffy looked intrigued for a moment, but not at the offer, "By any chance, do you know how to navigate?" he asked.

"Yeah! Of course I know! Don't look down on me. Navigational skills, well, there aren't a lot of people who know more about it than I do, especially since I love the sea!" That was all it took for Luffy to jump out of his chair.

He threw his fists in the air and smiled wide, "I see! Yeah! That's great! We're also on the way to the Grand Line!"

"Really!?" She lit up.

"Yea! Hey, you, come join in as one of our crew as a navigator! Become a member of our pirate crew!" Once he had said that, her face turned into one of happiness, to confusion, to shock and finally stayed at anger.

"No way!" She growled at him. Luffy was confused by the sudden change in attitude, "Oh, so you're a pirate. Forget it!" She spread her arms out as if she didn't want the neko to get any closer, "We didn't have this conversation! I don't want to team up with you." She looked at him and smirked. "I get it now… so you're going to use that map of yours in your hat to find the treasure."

Luffy flinched but glared at her. He held onto his hat and frowned, "I told you this is not a treasure map!"

"Yea right! Then what is it? Why call that stupid rag of a hat your treasure?" she scowled. Luffy so desperately wanted to take off his hat and cuddle it, but he managed to control himself from doing so. Since Nami seemed to detest pirates, he didn't have much trust for the teen.

Instead, he rubbed his hat, desperately wanting to feel it more, "I got this hat ages ago from a friend. It's my precious treasure! I swore myself to gather up a crew and become a pirate to the person who gave me this hat." His tail inside his pants bristled comfortably, reacting to the memories Luffy was thinking at that moment. He made a promise which turned into his dream. It was slowly forming together and one day, he was going to accomplish it. He promised and he wasn't the type of person to lie.

Nami stared at Luffy with an expression that was difficult to read, but when Luffy sniffed the air, he could smell a bit of recognition, but it quickly vanished. "Huh. Everything's pirate this, pirate that…" She glared at the ground, making an annoyed sound, "It's a pathetically said era!" She finally said getting off the table she was sitting on. "THE THINGS I HATE MOST IN THIS WORLD ARE PIRATES! I only like money and tangerines!" she slammed both her hands on the table this time. Luffy could smell the anger in the air. He then realized that ever since he started his journey, he had been exposed to many types of emotions from different people. Coby, for example, somehow managed to mix fear with every other emotion possible, which he didn't understand. But, even though he didn't trust her very much, there was no denying the fact that he and Zoro needed a navigator.

His tail bristled when he said Zoro. Strange. He thought it bristled only because his cat instincts were telling him that Zoro too was a neko, but, when he thought of his swordsman, his tail reacted much the same way, but differently.

He shook his head and concentrated on what was going on around him. Right now, he needed a navigator and he was going to get one. "Hey, come one, become our navigator!" in response, she yelled at him for being crazy and called him dumb but he was already used to those insults. But, he did find it strange that the angry smell—which smelled like something was burning—changed dramatically to one of… something of the opposite. It wasn't happiness but it was nowhere near anger as well.

"Well, it looks like you're in a fix, so just under one condition and I'll consider it." Luffy stopped thinking and perked his ears. Did the smell have to do something with reconsideration? He had never really smelled it before once in his life and if he ever did, he most likely forgot about it.

"Really? Thanks. I am kinda' in a fix, but what's the condition?" He asked, hunched over a bit more.

"Go with me to where Buggy is." She pointed a finger at him, "That's it. That's all I want you to do."

Luffy's face lit up, his tail from inside reacted the same way, threatening to come out from inside his shorts and sway contently. He hopped of the chair he was sitting on and gleefully walked out the door, asking where Buggy was. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at Nami who was now right beside him, tugging a roll of thick rope over her shoulder. "What's that rope?" He asked her, but she shrugged and said that it was only a rope.

After walking for some time, Nami told Luffy that the bar in front of them was where the pirates were staying. He stopped walking and looked at Nami who had stopped long before. "Then, what do you wanna do here?" he asked her, not looking at her.

He heard a shuffling noise and before he could turn around, he saw a brown line go in front of his line of sight and some sort of bind quickly wrapping around his body. Before he even realized what was happening, he was thrown to the ground as a foot was placed on top of his back, feeling the binds around him get tighter, like an anaconda would do to its prey. "That, you will find out soon…" He felt both his legs and arms completely tied, forced back even more, "When we get there, stupid pirate!"

"Hey! What are you doing?" He asked, subtly confused but still not understanding the situation he was in—or for a matter of fact, the one he was getting himself into.

●ω●

While being dragged towards the bar—unceremoniously, he might add—he heard yells and screams coming from inside said building. Nami managed to get in contact with one of the pirates. The pirate left them for a minute but returned and opened the doors, allowing Nami to drag the neko even further inside the building. She pulled his binds, lifting him up a bit, but dumped him soon after, just to add some effect.

"I captured the thief, Buggy the Clown, leader of the pirate fleet. I will return your map too." Nami said raising the map she had shown him before in front of a man who looked like a clown, since he wore colorful clothes and strange makeup… and a really big, round, red nose. The invisible almost-non-existent gears in his mind clicked together as he glared at the liar next to him.

"You tricked me!" He growled at her. She looked at him and stuck her tongue out at him, mischievous eyes mocking him.

Nami and the pirate, Buggy exchanged many words but what really pissed Luffy off was that she had planned it all and that he had fallen for her trap. She had even asked to join _their_ crew even after she had clearly stated that she hated pirates. And they agreed was the worst part! They had grabbed the neko and had stuffed him in a cage like a real cat up for adoption, but less careful. They had quite literally stuffed him inside the cage as if he was a horrified cat who was going to be taken to the vet. That made more sense. "That mean girl!" He growled, steaming a bit, "See if I put her in my crew!"

Right now, he only trusted Zoro.

He growled to himself, murmuring random words that didn't really make sense together.

●ω●

"We're here, master Zoro." 'Master'… that was a new one.

Zoro hopped off the small boat and looked around the town they had disembarked at and switched his gaze to the medium sized ship next to the one they were on. He looked at the town once more and then looked at the three pirates. "The village is empty…?" believe it or not, he was actually a bit concerned from the absence of people in the area. "I don't see anybody around…" he stated. The fattest of the three rubbed the back of his head as he explained to Zoro about what they currently were doing, "The truth is our Buggy pirate fleet is here at the moment, raiding this village."

"The other two looked at each other and conversed about what they were to do now since they had nothing. The guy who had been talking with him the most on the boat told his friend that they were going to have to say the truth because the girl had escaped and was most likely somewhere on the ocean, but he didn't say 'girl' though. He said it a bit harsher.

He rested his hand on his swords as his ears twitched. "I imagine that this pirate fleet you're talking about is nearby so…" he placed his bandana on top of his head, perfectly concealing his ears and continued to stuff his large tail inside his pants. He sighed and looked at the town, sniffing the air, smelling only so much of Luffy's scent. Man, he missed his jokes. "I better meet that 'Buggy' guy then…" he finally gave up on trying to track down his captain by scent, "'Cause I might be able to hear some information about Luffy."

He smelled him, even though he wasn't very close, there were definitely signs that he had been there. That black leopard was going to the Grand Line with him, and if that was what would help achieve his dream, he had to find him.

●ω●

Luffy was completely annoyed by the loud noises and yells and worst of all… the celebration.

He was trapped in a cage, completely ignored by everyone who was near him, and everyone was having an amazing time by the retrieval of their map and the recruitment of a new crewmate, who, remember: he had asked her first but she retorted by saying that she hated pirates and that she would never stoop so low as to act like one. She had even told him straightforward 'no'.

He opened his mouth wide and clamped his jaws on the steel bars, trying to break it with his teeth, to no avail. He would've been using his hands or feet but a certain someone had tricked him and tied his limbs which he planned to use for beating up lunch and people he didn't like. "Eh?" He was surprised to see Nami squatting in front of him, her legs touching each other as she rested her arms on them.

"How's it going boss?" She asked evilly. He could just _smell_ it.

"Shut up and let me out!" His endless pit of a stomach grumbled. That's right… he hadn't had a bite ever since he crashed and fell from the sky. "I'm hungry too… gimme something to eat…" She got up from her position and left, going near a table. A few minutes later, she came back with some food and gave it to him. "You, you're a nice person. I guess I'll let you join my crew." He said happily munching the piece of food she had given him.

"I don't want to, you idiot!" She yelled at him. This confused him a bit. Here she was now, telling him that she didn't want to join a pirate crew when she had personally asked the other pirate captain to let her join. He didn't understand the minds of people sometimes. "Don't you even see the situation you are in? You are more likely to be sold to some place by these pirates." His tail bristled uncomfortably. Well, now he definitely wasn't going to show his ears or tail in this town. "Don't worry though, 'cause if my plan works smoothly, I'll open the cage's lock and help you run away, since I have nothing against you."

"Then open it now." He said bluntly.

Out of nowhere though, Buggy appeared next to Nami with a jug of beer and laughed uncontrollably. "You've got yourself a pretty good follower there, thief boss!"

"What are you talking about? She's not my follower." Although Luffy did understand the part where he was tricked, he didn't understand _how_ and _what_ she had said to trick him and to cause them to be fooled as well.

"Yes, yes. You probably feel like saying something like that," the pirate captain glared at the Straw Hat captain, "especially since you've been betrayed. Even though I got my map back, it's still a terrible crime to steal from this man here, your fate has been chosen for you." He said pointing at himself.

"Oh, you gonna let me go?" Luffy said with an innocent look, full of sincerity.

"Yeah, I'm letting you go…" His eyes went wide but he scowled, "You think I'm that stupid?!" he retorted. "Boys! Prepare the 'Buggy special cannonball'!" he threw his arms in the air, the rest of the pirates following his example. They all cheered as one of the pirates rushed in with a cannonball with a skull mark painted on it. They told him it was ready as the man holding the cannonball stood next to the cannon, which was pointed at the house next to the building they were on. "Alright! Show them! Show them the power…"

Luffy's eyes went wide when they lit the fuse and **especially** when the cannonball was shot. He was expecting the cannonball to destroy the house it was pointed at but no… it had destroyed the whole row of houses with a huge explosion, the row itself was tremendous in size and for all of it to be completely obliterated by **one** cannonball was simply… amazing yet at the same time, terrifying. Both he and Nami were left speechless by the amount of damage it had left behind, the only sound being of the aftermath of the cannonball and the cheers of the pirates. "The power is so great, this thing can wipe out the whole little village in one shot! This and the powers I have gained from the devil's fruit assure my future success at the Grand Line!" Buggy smirked manically.

They then pointed the same cannon they had used to fire the previous cannonball at Luffy who was still trapped inside the damn cage. "Now, shoot the cannon, Nami! And swear upon this, your loyalty and sincerity of the desire to rule the world with me! Get rid of your old boss once and for all!" he finally finished his speech.

What had left Luffy in shock wasn't the cannon pointed at him, but it was the mere destruction it had left behind. He sat calmly in his cage and stared emotionless at the one who was forced to kill him indirectly. "Kill that guy…?" she said trembling, her voice shaking even harder than her body and more hurriedly than the sweat running down her face and neck. "Me…?" She looked at the pirate and waved her hands to dismiss the idea, "N-No! Captain Buggy! I don't think that's necessary…! More importantly…" She stuck her hands out to add more effect, "Ah, yes! Drink! Let's drink! Let's just ignore that guy!"

"Kill him." Was the captain's blunt but malicious answer.

Luffy could smell the complete fear and terror around Nami. She really didn't want to kill him. That was obvious. The other pirates clapped their hands together as they chanted the word 'shoot' at Nami, Buggy laughing along with them. After some time, Luffy noticed she was thinking about something, but he didn't know what was on her mind. It could've been a plan, or it could've been something else. He glared at her but shifted his gaze to the hand that held the matches to light the fuse. "Your hand is shaking." He said loud enough for her to hear him. He grinned and looked at her with a confident look, "The strong oath, is what a pirate has sworn himself at, and you lack the strength of that oath!"

"Oh, strong oath." She was a sweating mess, "Wonder what that is… is it killing innocent people like insects? Is that the pirate's oath…?"

"No, it's not." A serious look dawned on his confident expression, "It's the idea of being strong enough for risking your life." He smirked.

For the next few seconds, he noticed that Nami had completely frozen in place, but when a pirate had snatched the matches from her hand, she instantly reacted and pulled out three poles from underneath her skirt and connected them together, creating a long bo-staff, then smacked the man on the head, knocking him out cold on the floor next to the cannon.

As all the pirates who had seen the unexpected attack, Luffy was surprised.

"NAMI, YOU IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Luffy looked at the pirate captain, still confused at what she was doing, "I ACTUALLY GAVE YOU THE HONOR OF LIGHTING THE CANNON'S FUSE BECAUSE YOU'RE MY CREW MEMBER!" Luffy's ears were starting to bleed now. His sensitive cat ears couldn't handle the loud voice of the clown pirate, but luckily, his hat had somewhat muffled a bit of the sound.

"What, you're saving me now?" Luffy mocked her. He had taken a sniff and smelled the amount of fear and anger swell up around Nami. She didn't want to kill anyone and she wasn't going to become someone like a pirate.

"I did that not with that purpose! Even though it was an act, I don't want to become anything like an evil pirate!" Bingo, he had read her correctly. "Pirates stole the life of someone precious to me, I hate pirates more than anything!"

"So that's why you don't like pirates…" Luffy said softly. He changed his gaze from her to the cannon still pointed at him and boy, was he surprised to see that the fuse was quickly burning out, a small flicker of light eating away at the rope. He yelled, successfully getting the attention of most people, "The fuse is burning! Crap! I'm gonna die!" he said as he clamped his jaws on the bars of his cage, trying once more to break it with his mouth.

"You can leave your people-playing skills to that, you bitch!" Kill her, painfully!" Buggy yelled out.

Immediately, all the pirates charged at Nami with knives and daggers in hand. The cannon fuse continued to slowly let itself be eaten away by the sparks it would temporarily spit out. He continued to clamp down on the bars, to no avail. From his line of sight, he couldn't even see the fuse anymore. "Dammit! Someone put out that fuse! I can't die this way!" He strained his hears towards the cannon and listened to the clicking sound of the burning fuse, trying to see if there was any more fuse to burn out. He hadn't been expecting though for Nami to run up to the back of the cannon and clasp her hands together on the fuse, burning her hands in an attempt to burn out the fuse. From what he could tell, it looked painful, and to add to that train of thought, he saw the smoke come from inside her hands.

"You…!? He was shocked that she was burning her skin to burn out the fuse. He didn't know that many people who would do that for someone else. "Behind you!" he yelled out to her, realizing that the pirates were already in the air, ready to pounce on her and stab her with their daggers.

He watched as the pirates were slashing their knives in front of them, leaving no time for Nami to dodge.

He thought it was going to be the end for her but, because he had strained his ears earlier, he had caught a familiar, quick sound. It was the same sound that his swordsman did whenever he would vanish and appear somewhere else, not leaving enough time for someone to even blink, "Zoro!" He as beyond happy. The swordsman had taken out two of his katana—still in its sheath—and let the pirates crash their faces on the sheaths of the swords, successfully giving them bloody noses.

Zoro looked at Nami and asked her if she was hurt. Even though she had said she was okay, he studied her hands and saw the burnt marks on her palms. He didn't take any time to study them though since he had an idiotic pirate captain to free. "Thank goodness. You actually found this place! Get me outta this, quick!" Luffy ushered him.

Zoro sighed and rested one of his katana on his shoulder as he held the other one lazily in his other hand. He glared at his captain and huffed, annoyed by what he was seeing. "You!" Everyone flinched by his tone of voice, so he imagined that it was because they thought he was hunting down the pirate who was in the cage, "Is this your idea of fun…?!" He calmed his voice down a bit so he wouldn't sound extremely angry, but sincerely, that was what he really was feeling. He didn't even have to look at everybody else so know that they were confused now by what he had said, but he didn't care at that moment. He had gone through so much trouble to find him, "You get caught by a bird and got carried away, and now when I finally find you, you're in a cage?! Stupid!" He finished.

He could hear the confused conversations between the pirates from behind him, but even he was a bit confused when one of them had said Luffy was a thief and that he was talking with him. Suddenly, what he assumed was the pirate captain Buggy, walked behind him and crossed his arms, "You're definitely Zoro. Are you aiming for my head?" he asked, not looking at him.

"No. I've no interest in that. I'm no longer a pirate hunter because I have quit." Zoro replied, not looking at the pirate, giving him the same treatment.

"But I have some interest, if I kill you, my name will become more famous." Buggy said, taking out four knives from underneath his coat for one of his hands and a large dagger for his other, juggling the one dagger with only that hand.

The tiger looked back at the pirate clown and sighed, "If you don't wanna die, then just leave me alone." After he had said that, all the pirates from the pirate fleet had cheered for their captain, telling Buggy to kill Zoro.

"If you don't show your true skills now, you'll soon be covered in blood!" Buggy said, charging at Zoro as he licked on of his knives.

Zoro pulled out each swords from their sheaths and placed each one in their respective positions. "Fine, if that's what you want!" He said through the sword in his mouth. He charged at Buggy and positioned all his swords facing to the left, then in one slice, he cut through his opponent, slicing off one of his arms, one of his legs and his torso, earning a scream from his victim.

Luffy expected a better fight, seeing how the whole village was terrified of this pirate, but he was disappointed. "Huh?! That guy's so weak!?"

Both nekos were surprised though when the enemy pirates started to chuckle, some even laughing out loud, almost as if they were happy that he swordsman had done that to their captain. Both Luffy and Zoro could smell the amount of maliciousness was in each laugh, it was far too much to be met with the situation at hand. Their captain had been cut down and yet, they were laughing… not the type of laugh one does when something is funny, but whenever they knew something was going to happen if you turned your back.

"He died really easily." Zoro said, ignoring the mysterious chuckles from the rest of the pirate crew. The event made him remember whenever all the marines celebrated from the defeat of the lieutenant, but, the laughs were far from happiness. Instead, it seemed as if they were waiting for a comeback, but, they weren't moving. They only laughed.

He walked towards Luffy's cage and rested his hand on the top of the cage, staring at his captain who asked his friend to get him out. "This thing won't open without a key. These iron bars won't slice." He told the straw hat captain. He looked at Luffy and enclosed the space between the two as much as he could, close enough so that nobody else would hear. "Do they know?" He asked seriously, but he wasn't particularly mad, just unamused.

The captain shook his head with a smile. "Don't worry. That goes the same for you. Did anybody see you?" Luffy asked, keeping his smile.

"No. Sorry. Three guys know, but only me." Zoro replied. He expected his captain to lose his smile, but, surprisingly he did the exact opposite. His smile grew wider and Zoro felt relieved. His captain had forgiven him, even though he was not careful and he had revealed to people his crucial identity. He had no doubt that the pirates he were with were going to tell their captain, and he knew that the captain was right behind him, _dead_ , so he now had no problem at all.

Suddenly though, when he rose from his squatting position, everyone burst into laughter, the exception of the two nekos and the girl thief. "What is so funny?!" the tiger glared at the pirates, who had completely ignored him, "Just give us the key! I don't want to fight you guys!" he caressed his katana, feeling an uncertainty in the air. Before he realized anything though, he felt a sharp pain go through right above his hip, a feeling of something hard and cold slicing from his back to his front. He felt his legs give in as he collapsed onto his knees, not having the energy to look at what had literally, stabbed him in the back.

"Zoro!" Luffy yelled. The wound was definitely deep. He was no doctor, but he knew that if a knife stabs through the body completely, then it was worse than bad. He looked at what was holding the dagger, and was more than surprised, in a non-cheerful way.

The knife from Zoro's side sliced through the rest of his hip and was finally released, allowing the blood to fly everywhere. The tiger grasped his side and felt it throb in his hand, pulsating achingly which passed the pounding to the other side of his hand, sickening him even more. He sliced the katana he had out and attempted to return an attack, but his sword met with nothing. Zoro twisted his body to look at his enemy but he shocked himself when he only saw the amputated arm holding a bloodied dagger. From behind him, he heard a mocking voice. "The Bara Bara no Mi…" Zoro looked behind him and tried to keep the blood from coming out from both the wound and his mouth, even more surprised to see that the amputated leg and arm and torso reattached like nothing, as the body parts were like magnets and simply stuck to each other with no amount of effort. "That's the name of the devil fruit I ate. No matter how you try to slice me up, you can't because I'm a sectioned man!"

"A sectioned man?" Luffy gaped at his enemy, (he was now an enemy ever since he had stabbed Zoro) "That guy's a monster!" The black leopard said, not realizing what type of a monster he was.

"I see I've missed your vital parts, Roronoa Zoro!" the pirate clown captain said with a disturbing smile. "But it's still a pretty serious injury. It was an okay victory." Zoro couldn't tell if the pirate was mocking him, but he did feel that way.

Zoro clutched his wound even harder, pain erupting like a bleeding volcano, spitting out the heated liquids kept inside its used-to-be closed body. He was ashamed. He knew that his opponent had eaten a devil fruit but even with that information, he had been careless. He had allowed the pirate captain to stab him and disable him. He was _too_ ashamed. He had appeared in the first place to save Luffy but looking at himself, he felt his pride waver.

Everyone else erupted in manic laughter, pleased to see the swordsman's blood. They continuously cheered on for their clown-like captain, encouraging their captain do finish the job.

Luffy growled. Usually, when an animal growls, it usually means the start of a fight, and Luffy was going to give the clown captain one. "Stabbing from the back is dirty!" He yelled at the other pirate captain, quickly searching for an insult that would make the clown growl back, so that he would agree with the tradition of the start of a fight. If one growls, the other has to growl for giving the executioner permission to fight. His mind set on an insult and he yelled at him again. "You _big nose_!"

He must have taken a good guess of an insult because, by taking a whiff of the air, he smelled complete fear and surprise from the pirates but pure anger from Buggy, who, after what seemed like an eternity, finally reacted, as if he was taking in what he had been called, trying to figure out what he was just called. "Who are you calling a BIG NOSE?" the pirate captain charged at the other caged captain, preparing to slash him even fiercer than an angered female lion who had just witnessed her cubs slaughtered by another male lion, wanting to take over her pride.

He detached his arm again with the same knife he had used to stab Zoro and lunged it towards Luffy, still inside his cage. It entered his cage and caused the cage itself to slide back a few feet when it made contact with Luffy's face. Zoro cried out his captain's name, afraid of the worst. Luffy grinned and glimpsed at the expression of Buggy's face, amused by it. When he looked up completely, he held the knife in between his teeth, snapping the first half of the knife off with his own jaws. "I swear, I'm gonna take you down!" He said through clamped jaws.

"Take me down?" Buggy asked amused. Immediately, he burst into laughter, repeating what he had said before as he laughed. Gonna take me down?! You're hilarious! You three are gonna die right now on the spot!" He continued to laugh, annoying Zoro and from what he could tell, worrying Nami. Luffy listened to Buggy's rant a bit more as the clown captain did dramatic poses, flailing his arms around and laughing even more, "So you have the will to die, straw hat? And just how exactly do you plan to take me down in this situation? Boys! Laugh at him!" Every enemy followed his order and did just that, but the trio completely ignored it, paying no attention to something so simple.

Luffy turned his attention to Zoro instead and yelled out an order as well, a serious look on his face. "Run away, Zoro!"

"What?!" Zoro looked at his captain surprised with a look of confusion clearly written on his face. If not confusion, he was a bit angered by that order.

"Hey… Your friend came to rescue you, but you're telling him to run away…?!" Both Zoro and Luffy looked at the female thief. "How about you?!"

Zoro continued to stare at Luffy's serious eyes. A different look was there. Luffy's mouth cracked into a serious smile, telling Zoro something much more. Zoro tried reading his expression, and somehow succeeded in understanding what he really meant. Although—from what he could tell—his captain was an idiot when he didn't think things through, but he had to admit, that Luffy trusted in his swordsman enough to understand what he really meant. Luffy didn't want the swordsman to run. His stare and grin said it all. 'Run' meant something else. 'Run' meant as a distraction. _'Run'_ meant to do something of the exact opposite. So, that's where he let his mind run off to.

"Ok." He said, staring at what he planned to use. Zoro charged at his objective, still clutching his side to prevent any more blood from seeping out. When Buggy and the pirates had claimed Zoro was running, he smirked and quickly sheathed his sword, sliding himself from underneath the large steel contraption, using all his strength to haul the thing up. He had left his wound unattended so that he could push the cannon even further. Blood spilled from his wound, flying in the air like magma erupting from a volcano. He lifted the cannon even further and after a few more struggling grunts of pain, the cannon flipped to the other side, facing all the enemy pirates who screamed in terror. He turned back and stared at the surprised thief, "Oi, I need a light! Hurry!" he ordered her. She did as told and passed him the matches she had from before, picking them up from the ground. In the next second, everyone's ears were deafened by a loud, uncomfortable ringing. The next second was followed by a loud 'boom', the sound of building and stone crippling.

Zoro and Luffy were the ones deafened the most, even though their ears were covered the best it could, it still picked up much more than the rest of the people in the area. Zoro shook his head and calmed his senses, using the smoke from the explosion as a distraction to run up to his captain, "This is a good time to go." He looked at Nami who was still near the cage as well, "Who are you anyways…?"

"I…" Both nekos could tell by her smell that she was still shocked, "I'm a thief." She stuttered.

Luffy caught Zoro's attention by giggling and smiling wide, "That kid is _our_ navigator."

He watched as both this Nami and Luffy argued with each other, well it was really just Nami yelling at his captain, "You're an idiot, aren't you?! You're still on about that?! If you've got times to say things like that then how about thinking of a way to get outta that cage?!"

"Hey, that's a good idea… I'll do that." Luffy said happily, not minding being called an idiot.

Zoro stared at him and smirked, blood dripping from his mouth. "No, it's okay," he drew the pairs' attention to him, "You just stay in the cage."

●ω●

Zoro let out a pained grunt as he slowly lifted up the large, iron cage. "Hey, Zoro, it's okay!" Luffy tried to get his plead through Zoro, "Your stomach is gonna pop out if you do this!"

Although it sounded quite childish to say that his stomach would pop out, but, to Zoro's understanding of his captain, he was being dead serious. And, as much as he hated to admit it, the wound was getting worse. Trying to lift up the iron cage had opened his wound much wider than it originally was, because of that, more blood seemed to flood out through it. He grunted at Luffy's statement but kept a set face, not wanting a distraction, "If it wants to pop out, then let it!" He hissed. The cage slowly lifted from the ground and with one final pull, he rested one of the sides on the cage in between the space of his shoulder and neck as he used his right arm to bend towards its side and his left right below it, holding onto one of the bars from the corner of the cage. It was an understatement to say he was in pain and uncomfortable. "Don't butt in by saying anything." He told the two people near him. His face was pure pain and discomfort.

He set one foot in front of him and did so with his other. After a few seconds, he quickened his pace until he was jogging, free loads of pain and exhaustion washed over him, but, he had no choice. He had a captain to save.

●ω●

Zoro dumped the cage on the roof of the house, right behind a protruding window with roofing, hiding them a bit from plain view. He clutched his wound once again as it started to bleed worse than before. They hadn't traveled far at all, either. Thanks to his injury, he only managed to cross one house and rest on the next one, literally only traveling two houses from the roof of the bar. "Dammit! If this cage would just open…! Open!" He tried pulling two bars away from each other, but he didn't have super human strength to do so.

"We're being in a dangerous situation here," Zoro said, his elbow resting on his knee, his other hand working its best to stop the bleeding, "But what's been started must be finished, I suppose. I mean, you two did growl at each other…" He said over the yells of the other pirates, still very audible since they were close by.

"Hey, Zoro." Luffy said, getting the swordsman's attention.

"Yeah?" the tiger had a feeling his captain was going to say something that would aid him.

"Try purring."

The swordsman stared at him with an expressionless gaze. He looked up at the sky and sighed. "I guess that can speed things a bit."

●ω●

"We're quite far away from the pub. They won't be able to catch up with us immediately now." Zoro continued to haul the iron cage still containing Luffy as the pirate captain resorted once again biting the iron bars again, "Our escape was done okay, but this cage is starting to annoy me." He had long ago been just pulling it instead of carrying it. His shoulders and neck needed some rest.

"Yea. If this thing doesn't open then even though all those bad guys come, I can't even attempt to fight them." Luffy said through chewing.

Suddenly, he felt the weight of his cage fall and crash onto the floor. Looking behind him, he saw Zoro on the floor, slightly cuddling it. "This is it… I don't have enough blood… I can't walk any longer…!" He said through heaves. The tiger was obviously having a hard time controlling his breathing. He had lost too much blood and his eyes were getting blurry.

"I told you to purr." Luffy stopped biting the cage.

"And I already did."

"But you didn't even do it for more than a minute!" Luffy scolded his crew member, who scowled at him back.

Once Luffy had said those words, Zoro opened his eyes and was met with a small, white dog, just sitting right in front of him. His tail bristled uncomfortably as he shot up and sat on a pillar of a building near Luffy, surprised by the presence of an unseen dog. "What's with this dog?"

"Dog?" Luffy looked at where Zoro was staring at, pushing the bars from inside his cage to somehow get closer to the animal. "Hey, it is a dog."

Normally, nekos are horrified by the presence of a dog. They were natural enemies. The dog would chase the cat and the cat would run away, throwing hisses and scratches as it ran. Although all this is true, Luffy and Zoro weren't normal to start with and other than that simple fact, they were much larger cats capable of causing much more damage to the little animal.

"What is his?" Luffy asked, staring straight in its black eyes. "Is it really a dog? Hey look Zoro, the dog isn't moving at all."

"Whatever." Zoro sighed. "What it does up to the dog. Right now you've got to think of a way to get out of that cage."

"And _you_ have to purr." Luffy looked at him with a serious look. Zoro looked at him with an annoyed look and the sudden grin his captain was giving him deepened his frown, "Captain's order." Zoro looked at him shocked by what he had said. He should've expected as much, and he imagined that he was going to be using that one sentence to get what he wanted in the future as well.

He sighed and removed the bandana from his head, too pained to remove his tail from inside his pants. He tied the bandana on his arm and rested said arm on his wound, caressing it. All the sweat coming from him had reached to his back and had uninvitingly slid into his pants, soaking his tail and making it all slimy and uncomfortable, so he shifted a bit and removed his tail from inside the enclosure, feeling quite good afterwards. The wind cooled his body and made his tail feel damp because of all the sweat, but other than that, it felt nice to relax someplace calm. He stared at Luffy for a moment—who stared back at him expectantly—and sighed again. After he sighed, he slid down his post a bit and looked to the side, trying to get in a more comfortable position. After he was pleased with the way he laid on the ground, he let out a low grumbling noise from his throat, breaking the silence. He felt his tail sway contently when he had done this, probably because it was impatient and wanted something to heal the wound its body was working hard with fixing and failing because of the stress it was being put through from pulling Luffy's cage.

Luffy smiled and stuck out his tail as well. Like Zoro, it felt more than good for the fur to be combed by the soft breezes. He looked at the dog once again and poked it in the eyes with two fingers from his hand. "I wonder if it's dead." He smiled. Not because he wanted a dog to be dead, but because it was a different experience to be seeing a dead dog sitting like a doll. After poking it in the eyes a few more times, the white dog reacted and opened its mouth wide, chomping on the black leopard's face. The neko yelled out in pain and from inside the cage, he tried kicking and punching the dog as it bit and clawed back.

Zoro watched annoyed by his captain's actions and felt a strong urge to go over to where his captain was and punch him to end the fighting, but he was busy purring and he honestly had no strength at the moment. Luffy whined out 'stupid dog' as Zoro laid on his back and groaned about not having enough blood.

Suddenly, the two nekos had finally noticed footsteps drawing closer to them. Both wanted to react but obviously couldn't. "What the…" they heard the voice. It was female and it had a sweet tone to it, but the sweet tone wasn't very identifiable because of the utter confusion in it. They knew who it was, but, they were still confused by the confusion in her voice.

"Nami…?" Luffy whined silently, barely audible.

"Why do you guys have tails?" Nami asked, bewilderment in her voice as clear as a cloudless sky.

When she had asked about the tails, the two teenagers jumped from their spot and stared at her with wide eyes. Because of the sudden movement, Zoro clutched to his side in pain but subconsciously continued to purr, oblivious that he was doing so. Luffy looked at her and stuttered out undecipherable words, before he finally took in a deep breath after a minute and let it out, so much that even Zoro felt the air rush past him from where he was sitting. "Oh, uh… you see Nami… it's just that… that we're…" He paused and looked at the iron below him, then he mumbled out a word not even loud enough for Zoro to hear.

"You're what?" She asked, her arms limp from the sudden surprise of what she was seeing. "No way…" Both nekos knew what she was thinking at the moment. It was obvious. They were a rare species that never left their respective islands, so seeing **two** in one place, hurt and helpless, was definitely a surprise. Luffy and Zoro slowly nodded their heads as Luffy stuttered out a small 'yes', surprising Nami even more. "Yo-You guys are nekos! Nekos! Nekos for Pete's sake!" She continued to say nekos over and over again, obviously shocked by her discovery.

The nekos slowly nodded their heads again as this time, both said a quiet 'yes'. Even Zoro, a person who never feared anything, was scared for what she could do in his weakened state and Luffy's powerless state. They expected the worst, but after many minutes of complete silence, she mumbled out the word nekos once again before her eyes turned into beri signs. They knew it. She would sell them for tons of money and they would have a tortured life. Zoro once again attempted to get up—he had long stopped his purring—but his wound kept him down. They expected Nami to run up to them and tie them up and take them to some buyer, but, instead, they watched as she shook her head quickly and—by the smell of it—disapprovingly as she slapped her cheeks a few times and opened her eyes. They were normal again. There was no evil or untrusting glint in there. In fact, they were almost sorrowful.

"S-Sorry. Sorry if I frightened you guys… I… I also heard the stories of how much fortune one gains from a neko, but, don't worry, I'm not like that." She paused and took a deep breath. Luffy and Zoro had untrusting eyes but honestly, they had no reason to. Her words were completely sincere. There were no lies, only truth. "As much as I love money, I would never sell a living being to gain it." There were absolutely no lies at all. Both pirates softened their eyes as they no longer had a distrusting glare in them. They could trust her, well, because she would keep her word.

Both nekos looked at each other, speaking in silence. No words were shared, but they had told each other that the girl was trustworthy. They both agreed. "As long as you don't tell anybody else." Zoro whispered to her, wanting to sound distrusting but instead came out a bit raspy. Luffy nodded quickly. Zoro rested on his side and continued to purr, following his captain's order.

"Anyway," both pirates looked at her, "If you just lie around here in the middle of the street, Buggy will definitely find you. I came to repay my debt to you, because you saved my life back there."

"Repay?" The black leopard tilted his head as he sat up. Instantly, he heard a clink and looked at the item that she threw at him. "Aah! The key! You stole the cage key!" He said happily.

"Yea… even I think so myself it was a really dumb thing to do… because of that I couldn't steal any of the treasures." She sighed.

"The cage was such a problem I thought we were gonna just die from the headache it gave us!" Luffy laughed, a wide smile planted on his face.

Zoro continued to purr and smiled as Luffy laughed. Because of his chuckling, Zoro's purrs were more audible, and that didn't go unnoticed by a certain thief girl. "Are you purring…?" She asked the tiger. "You're hurt but you're purring. Why?"

Zoro stared at her and stopped his purring. He lifted his hand and looked at his wound and smiled a bit at what he was looking at. Before, the wound was wide, too wide in fact, almost four inches wide, but from the looks of it, an inch had healed. "Cats purr to heal themselves quicker. The adults taught us about the science behind it but I don't remember how it works." Zoro explained, continuing to purr. She looked at him with a surprised look and nodded her head. She probably didn't know that cats could heal themselves by purring, probably because she only thought that cats purred only because they were content or happy. Well, you learn something new every day.

Luffy reached out to grab the key but both he and Zoro was confused as the white dog picked up the tip of the key and lifted its head high in the air, letting the key drop into its mouth. After a second of silence, the nekos heard the sound of a gulp, the key visible through the Adam's apple. Luffy immediately reacted and grabbed the throat of the dog, choking the poor thing, "You stupid dog! Spit it out! That thing you just swallowed isn't food!" He continued to shake the dog by the throat, broken yips and growls from the dog. "Damn it!" Luffy's tail was bristling like a mad cat while Zoro hissed at the dog, mostly because of the serious surprise.

"Oi, you people!" The trio looked at the man who seemed to have come out of nowhere. The man was somewhat elderly, a few wrinkles here and there with gray hair and small, round glasses. He wore a yellow lined shirt and dark green pants. Strangely enough, above the normal clothes were brown armor chest plate with gauntlets of the same material. "Don't do anything to ShuShu! " The man stomped towards the group, not really concentrating on anybody, seeming to only stare at ShuShu. Because of the smell he was emitting, both nekos figured that he hadn't yet seen what they really were, so they played along.

"ShuShu?" Luffy questioned, trying to push the dog away.

"Who're you, mister?" Zoro asked, sliding his tail to the other side of his body so that it wouldn't be very visible, but he had no real way to hide his ears since they were white and black, so, he only laid his ears back and tried to not show any indication that he was a neko. He glimpsed at Luffy and saw he also had slid his tail to the other side, invisible from the man's view.

"I'm the village's leader, or in other words, the chief!" He replied.

●ω●

"How's Zoro?" Luffy asked, watching as Boogle—he had told them his name—walked closer to Luffy and the dog with Nami tailing behind him.

"I let him sleep at my house since it's just next door. Even though I told him that there's a doctor at the shelter, but he won't listen and he says that it'll get better after sleeping, even though it's an enormous injury." He replied to Luffy.

"You should've seen it earlier." Luffy told him with a smile. "It was much larger than that before. It's because he purred."

"Purred? I know you two are nekos and all, but why would he purr with such a grave injury?" Nami took the liberty to explain how purring healed wounds and bones, using her new knowledge to inform the man. Earlier, when the man had first appeared, he hadn't noticed that the pirates were nekos until he had carried Zoro to his house. When that happened, they also had to explain to him what they were doing here in the first place, also peeking Nami's interest as well.

"Anyway, you said this dog's name is ShuShu." Luffy said, changing the subject. The man confirmed. "What is he doing here?"

"He's guarding this store. I just came to give him some food."

Luffy looked at the store they sat in front of, reading out the words 'Pet Food' above the entrance. "You're right. Now that I'm looking carefully it's a store."

"I see it's a pet food store." Nami said, resting her hands on her hips. Boogle then continued to talk about the history of ShuShu and the owner, and after Nami asked him why he was guarding the store if his owner should be in the shelter, he told her that the man passed away from a sickness. She continued to ask questions about the dog but when she had asked a specific question, Boogle's reply interested him. She had asked if the dog continued to guard it because it thought its owner would return, but Boogle told her that he was an intelligent dog and he knew that his owner has passed on, but the store was its treasure. That caught the neko's attention.

Luffy was always very fond of treasures that belonged to other people or animals. It was something special that could never be replaced because it has a special meaning behind it, something only the owner of said treasure would understand. His straw hat was a fine example. Shanks had given it to him, holding a promise deep inside of it. He would become a pirate and become the Pirate King, then when he was strong enough, he would fight Shanks himself and return the hat to him.

"It's an unendurable thing. I tried to take him into the shelter a few times, but he won't take a step away from this place. If I just left him here, I think that he'd stay until he starved to death." The chief said, smoking from his pipe. Luffy and Nami smiled at what they had heard. Out of nowhere though, the group heard a loud roar. Luffy knew what it sounded like. It sounded like something from the large cat family, but even he had trouble figuring from which cat. The roar was a sign of warning. The neko had heard it but it didn't mean anything at all. It was simply a roar. He searched through his files of cats and finally set on one. He thought about it and it made some sense as well. The words Luffy was thinking of: Lion. Luffy asked ShuShu to give it its key back when he realized what was coming towards him, but the dog simply ignored him. Both Nami and the chief had run away, so he was left alone with ShuShu inside the cage. He then heard large stomps on the ground and when he looked up, he saw that his prediction was correct. Quickly but unnoticeable, he slid his tail inside his shorts, hiding them.

"Well, I found one guy." Luffy looked at the man sitting atop the lion and was a bit surprised to see his appearance. The man had white hair that formed into his short beard, but two small, round ears protruded from the very top, making Luffy temporarily wonder if the man was also a neko, but he didn't smell like one so he disclosed his idea. His chest bore the same type of hair on his head, it was white and curled a bit but the hair seemed more like fur since it was thick and gave him the appearance of wearing a vest that only covered his chest. He also wore a yellow sash and blue, plain pants, "I'm Buggy's pirate crew member, the beast trainer Mohji." The lion stomped closer, growling, but Luffy was unintimidated by both of the pirates. The pirate who called himself Mohji chuckled as he looked at Luffy. "So the people you were with just ditched you? Poor thing, and you tried so hard to run away. Captain Buggy is pretty mad. You guys have committed a pretty serious crime."

Luffy's childish mind completely ignored what Mohji had said and instead pointed out his hair. "The heck are you supposed to be?" he said, mocking him without even realizing it, "Wearing a weird fur cap like that?"

The pirate growled as he pointed at the fur on his head, "You rude thing! Watch what you're saying! This is my hair!" His eyes turned small but Luffy hunched over a bit more than before.

"That just makes it weirder." The straw hat captain said bluntly.

The pirate eyed him and grew a small, manic smile on his face. "You… You're in the cage… so you don't know how scary I am…" He snarled out silently, trying to seem a bit more intimidating. "I'm telling you, there is no animal in this world that won't obey me! That includes that dog over there." He hopped of the lion and walked over to the dog and reached his hand out, saying 'shake a paw', but instead the dog opened its mouth wide and bit his hand, making him whelp in pain. Almost immediately after, he hopped back onto the lion and brushed off the event with the dog, changing the subject as if nothing had happened. "You're just a nameless thief."

"You gave up on the dog?" Luffy asked him, continuing to mock him without even realizing he was doing so.

The man glared at Luffy, his eyes screaming 'murder', "I have no reason not to kill you. Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is." He seethed evilly.

"I don't want to." Luffy growled at him, the lion reacting to his growl.

"Kill him, Richie!" Mohji commanded his lion, the beast pouncing on the steel cage and clawing and biting it until it snapped and bits of steel flew everywhere. Once the neko realized that he had a chance to escape, he took the opportunity and jumped out of the broken cage, celebrating his escape until he felt the paw of the lion crash into him, sending him to a nearby house across the street, completely obliterating the building.

Luffy sat up and placed his fallen hat back on his head, taking in a careful but heavy breath as he did so. "What a shock." He giggled, "I ended up all the way here at the other side." He punched the air with a tight fist as he put on a wide smirk, "But now I'm out of that stuffy cage. Okay, from now on after I get rid of those people, I'm gonna make Nami the thief my navigator!"

Luffy stood up and realized that his tail was in plain view, probably because of the sudden flying trip and impact, but immediately, he heard a scream far too sensitive for his ears. He turned towards the direction of the screaming and saw both Nami and Boogle gawking at him, the chief staring in pure horror but at the same time, amazement. "How are you still alive?!" Boogle yelled at him, Nami asking practically the same thing, only adding 'survive' in the mix.

"Can't I be alive?" Luffy asked them, confused at why they were telling him he should be dead, although they didn't mean it with hostility—that he did understand.

Nami ran closer to him, practically scooting towards him like a crab, and pointed at the house that he had smashed into when he was sent flying. "You smashed through a house, but you appear to be perfectly fine, which is too weird!" She said, pointing at the house, a flustered tone obvious in both her noise and body language.

"I don't care if it's weird." The neko said, patting his hat from on top of his head, still not understanding the situation with normal people.

Boogle walked close to him, just as flustered as Nami, if not, even more, but he managed to hide most of his confused frustration through a frown and sweat. He asked the black leopard what his purpose was in the town and why he was fighting the pirates, but the neko simply grinned—smaller than normal—and crossed his arms over his chest, not turned to face him, "I just chose my goal a moment ago!" He smiled a bit wider now, "It's getting the Grand Line map and a navigator!"

●ω●

"Anyway, I'm gonna go see Zoro for a minute and come back." Luffy said, turning back to look at his friends, "That fur cap guy appears to be looking for him." The neko honestly did want to check on his friend. Not only that, but Zoro was also a neko. If they found out that simple detail, they would most likely weaken him even further and then when he no longer can fight, they would sell him to a place where he would be without a doubt living in pure hell. The mayor tried to convince him not to go, but Luffy trusted his own strength. He had enough power to defeat that lion, he was just surprised, that's all.

The pirate captain walked past a corner to get back to where they started before, in front of the pet food store. If he remembered correctly, they had taken Zoro not too far, only a straight line and a few turns, so he imagined it wasn't going to be too hard to find his crewmember. Walking past the corner, hands in pockets, he looked at the street where he would have to walk next to get to Zoro but he stopped in his tracks and stared in absolute anger, his eyes reflecting the eyes of a deadly predator, something other people and even some nekos liked to call: animosity.

At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to find the one who had done… _this_. His systems were beginning to change into one of a fierce predatorily cat, wanting to tear the enemy in shreds, but he managed to control himself by taking a shaky breath and closing his eyes for a second, blocking out the loud thumping his body forced to make him go berserk. He opened his eyes and looked at the disaster in front of him, hearing the cries and wails of 'no' and 'please stop this' come from the dog, only to be blocked out by the loud crackling of fire and snapping of wood. The sound of a constant whipping sound pissed him off even more, but even with no whip or weapon to make such a sound, the burning of a building does.

The neko stared at the building, burning in flames and smoke. He then looked at the dog sitting in front of the torn building, whining and crying, pleads of 'no more' and 'stop' completely blocked out by the louder cackles of the fire, almost mocking at his uselessness. Luffy managed to look at the building with a blank stare, hiding his real emotions. He thought back, remembering the words of Boogle about the building being a treasure to ShuShu. _He loved his owner so much and since this is the only property of the owner,_ Luffy continued to listen to the cries of the white dog, finally noticing the extra wounds inflicted on it, drying blood clearly visible on his snow coat, _I think he'll continue to guard the store_. He stared closely at the dog, noticing the yellow-tinted tears fall from its eyes.

He sniffed the air, first smelling the pure sadness and melancholy but blocked out the emotions and focused on more original smells, something any person could do as long as they had a nose. He sniffed a few times, and finally found the smell he was looking for. It was large and smelled large, covered in fur and bearing a large mane, something that didn't intimidate him in the least. He followed the smell, uncaring about the fact that his tail was still completely exposed—he had witnessed the cries of a dog whose treasure was destroyed, he had more problems resting on his shoulder than exposing himself to the enemy— walking far enough so that he didn't have to continue listening to the eating fire, and finally, he stepped in front a familiar fellow.

Mohji—still sitting on top of his lion, which if he remembered correctly, was named Richie—glared at Luffy, confusion, anger, terror and frustration all mixed onto his face. "You… weren't you just… killed a while ago…?!" he said through closed jaws, obviously confused and angered that his enemy wasn't killed by the paws of his lion. Luffy swayed his tail slowly, although it didn't matter that it was going to be seen or not, the neko preferred if he didn't notice the tail, and luckily, he hadn't.

"I can't die that easily, because I'm a rubber man." Luffy said, crossing his arms and smiling wide, although it was somewhat forced, but he did feel pleased by the fact that he was confused that he wasn't dead.

"Rubber man? I can understand that you may have incredible devil's luck but I think you got a little hurt in the head… hearing you say words, so ridiculous…" The beast tamer jumped off his large lion and pointed at him, his lion baring out its teeth and claws, "Coming within my sight again was a dumb thing to do! This time I'll send you to the netherworld!" Richie pounced towards Luffy, ready to tear him apart. Luffy smiled, overlapping his arms multiple times so that his arms created some sort of long, spiraling pole of skin and bones. Mohji stared at the strange deformation of his enemy as Luffy grabbed large scruffs of the mane of the lion close to its cheeks. Luffy released the weight and tight hold of his coil-like arms, forcing the lion to spin even faster than a violent tornado. He smashed the lion in the ground—burying his head as well—but because of all the force, he was also sent towards the ground but at a controlled strength, unlike the animal.

"Richie!?" the beast tamer cried out, but it was more related to the fact that his friend and weapon had been defeated so easily. "You… What are you?!" He asked shaking.

Luffy's tail was completely exposed and his hat had fallen off as well, but he couldn't smell confusion related to his exposed cat features so he imagined that the pirate had yet to notice them, probably because he was terrified out of his mind, "A long time ago, I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi." He simply said.

"Gomu Gomu no Mi…!?" He started to shake uncontrollably. "Could it be that you have gained abilities from eating a devil fruit just like captain Buggy?!" He asked him. Luffy didn't even respond but the man immediately raised his hands, showing his palms and surrendered, as if it was that simple, "Okay! I'll give you everything that you want! A-And I'll apologize! Sorry!" His face was contorted in fear, only concentrating on how to get out of his current situation, but, sadly for him, Luffy knew what he wanted, but the pirate didn't have the ability to give it to him.

"I don't need an apology," Luffy said, his eyes invisible from the shadow overcasting them from his hair, "because it won't bring back ShuShu's treasure." Luffy turned to look at the pirate, his eyes narrowed so much that he resembled a fierce dragon, even more fierce than a dragon. A look that could kill, literally. His usual smile was replaced by a toothy growl, his mouth wide, showing many of his now forming fangs. He was having some trouble controlling his _kyōbō_ mode, sometimes it could go bad, even if was for good intentions, but, he somehow managed to return his fangs back to normal size, "And you…" he wanted to tear Mohji apart, but he suppressed his raw anger, "I came to get payback from you." He growled. Normally, the other would have to growl back to commence the fight, but the neko was far too pissed.

He stretched out his left hand to grab the collar of the vest-shaped 'hair', pulling out his right hand in the shape of a fist. "Have a taste of your own medicine." Luffy growled out, pulling his victim closer to him at lightning speed. Mohji begged for him to stop, but Luffy blocked out his pleas and continued to pull him closer and once he was right in front of the neko, Luffy forced his fist towards the beast tamer's face, sending him to the floor with his legs raised high. Luffy managed to break his nose and his jaw, sending buckets of blood flying in the air like a firework. He wasn't satisfied, but he wasn't the type of person to beat up someone who wouldn't even be able to feel it.

Luffy sighed, wanting to do a bit more damage, but, instead, he looked at the direction of the burnt building and walked towards it. When he finally made it there, he saw the dog there, badly wounded and staring at the crisped rubble, as well as Nami and Boogle. He stopped in his tracks though when Nami looked at him with a recognizable anger. She was mad at _him_ , even though he had done nothing wrong, but, he said nothing about it because she started first, "Oho! Mr. Pirate, so you're still alive…! I thought you would have finally been finished off by that lion…" She attacked him with great acrimony. She charged at Luffy, ready to physically harm the neko but the mayor understood the situation enough to grab her from underneath her shoulders, preventing her from going towards him. "Before you get your pirate pals over to raid this village, why don't you just go to hell!?" She screamed at him, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Luffy stared at her blankly, understanding a bit why she was angry. He sighed and stuck out his barbed tongue and mocked her, "You think that you can hurt me?" He asked her. Although the question would seem a bit harsh, but he didn't say it with any hostility at all, he simply mocked her a bit, which, even though he didn't mean to with complete intention, she was even more enraged. He ignored her constant yelling of a fight with her and walked towards the dog, holding what he could savage from the fight from before. Once closer enough, he set down the box of dog food in front of ShuShu, making Nami stop her thrashing.

Luffy smiled and sat next to the dog, crisscrossed and resting his hands on his knees, his tail positioned close to the dog as it swayed slightly. The dog stared at it as if it was confused. It made sense though, for the poor thing had just witnessed its treasure be completely obliterated and destroyed to nothing, so, it was probably just shocked when he saw a surviving piece of his precious owners' store. "That's the only one that I could bring back. The rest was eaten up if you can believe me." Luffy said smiling, glad that he managed to bring something back for ShuShu.

The dog was still panting from all the crying and barking, but Luffy could clearly see the smile on the dog. "It was admirable! You fought well. Well, I couldn't see it… but I know what happened." He saw the change of emotion in the dog's eyes, almost ready to tear up again as it began to shine.

ShuShu picked up the box of dog food with its mouth and walked away from Luffy, not saying a word to him. That was, until, after walking only a few feet away, the white dog turned its head around and set the box on the floor gently, yipping out happily. " _Take care of yourself_." ShuShu said, wagging its tail and looking at Luffy with a new perspective.

"Yeah! You too!" Luffy grinned, happily.

" _Thank you so much!_ " ShuShu barked again, sitting down, yipping even more.

Luffy smiled even wider than possible and laughed.

 **Yep. Still combining.**

 **(One) piece Out!**


	3. Chapter 3: Small Adventures

Chapter 3: Small Adventures

 **You guessed it. Still combining.**

Nami walked up to Luffy, surprising him. As if the event from before didn't matter too much, she raised her hand apologetically and with a sincere—it looked fake, though—smile and unnerved eyes, she spoke out, "Sorry for screaming at you."

Luffy continued to stare at her, still sitting down but smiled. He stood up and wiped his pants free from dirt and dust, "That's okay. You lost someone important to you because of pirates. You've been through a lot, haven't you?" Luffy asked her, looking down but keeping his smile. He didn't get a response from her but he did smell the approval and acknowledgment from her, making him smile even wider.

Suddenly, the mayor punched the air with both hands and yelled out loudly, much to the displeasure of Luffy's cat ears, "I can't stand it anymore!" He turned to look at the teens, "It's just miserable, so miserable! ShuShu and you youngsters are fighting like this, but why is it that I, being the village chief, can only watch our village being trampled?!" He then glared at Luffy, ignoring Nami's attempts at trying to calm him down, "To a real man, there are some fights that cannot be avoided! Isn't that right kid?" he yelled at the neko, desperate for an answer.

Naturally, because Luffy was all about that _'men should fight when necessary'_ , he grinned and looked at him with a confident expression, "That's right, mister." He then commenced to tell them his history, how he led only a few villagers but created a wide town over a town that had been completely destroyed by pirates. From there, the tiny village only contained a few houses, but the population increased as they built more and more and worked hard. He then looked at the town baring all the houses, spreading his arms wide as if he wanted to hug the village.

"This place has now grown into a successful harbor village! This village was made by old people! It's a village we made! This village and the villagers are my treasure! What kind of chief doesn't protect his own village? I'm going to fight!" He finished his speech, but, suddenly, the row of houses they were closest to were completely obliterated by a powerful force, enough so that the trio was sent flying. The mayor growled out a few words, almost like a whisper, but filled with anger, "Even my house!"

Luffy picked up what he had said because of his keen hearing but after hearing those words and the devastation in front of them, he gaped and narrowed his eyes dangerously, "Zoro was sleeping in there!" Now, he was beyond pissed at the enemy pirates. Not only had they destroyed someone's treasure, but they _dared_ to harm one of his nakama!

He grabbed his hat from his head and held it close to him, so that he wouldn't accidently lose it in all the smoke and rubble. He did so, so that he could strain his ears a bit further, searching for any breathing sound or any type of movement that could have been caused by him. Finally, he picked up a groaning sound and perked his ears up high, clear easement written on him when he had heard it, "Hey, Zoro! Come out! You okay?" he asked with a relieved smile, confusing the others.

The trio saw movement through the smoke and Luffy immediately turned to look at that place, his smile growing wider when he saw Zoro sitting, although he was holding his head and groaning, he was alive! "Yeah… That was some bad way to wake me up." He said, rubbing his head a bit more.

"What a relief!" Luffy paused for a moment and stared at Zoro for a moment, but he smiled again, "Looks like your wound healed great! It's not bleeding!" Even Luffy knew that a wound like his should be bleeding by the sudden explosion. Zoro looked at his wound and stared at it as well, admiring the well-healed wound. Sure, only a bit of the actual wound was there, and it most likely was paused because of the explosion, but at least Zoro was making progress. He smiled and looked at his captain, his tail swaying contently, silently telling his captain that 'it sure was'.

Once again, the chief began once again another speech of protecting his village, and during the end, he ran off, only to be held back by Nami, telling him that the pirates were dangerous and that he was being reckless, and he did nothing to deny that fact, "I know it's reckless!" tears brimmed his eyes, and once again, he rushed towards where the pirates would be.

"The chief…" Nami began, her voice quiet, "was crying."

Luffy turned back and whipped his tail once, as if there was something on it that he could easily get rid of with a single swing of his appendage, "Oh really? I didn't see anything." He said with a smirk, stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking towards to Zoro to check if he was okay.

"For some reason, this is starting to feel more fun." Zoro grinned, distracting himself from his small wound.

The leopard neko giggled and grinned wide at Zoro's statement, "I agree."

"How can you still laugh?!" Nami, the only one who didn't find anything fun, asked.

"Don't worry. I like that old man. I'm not going to let him die!" Luffy smiled reassuringly at her, well, at least tried. His smile looked more like it said _'I'm strong and because of that, he won't die.'_

"How can you still laugh at this kind of situation? Where the hell does your confidence come from?" She asked him, frustrated.

"Our destination is the Grand Line. Now we're going to go steal that map again!" Luffy smiled. "Will you join us? You need the map too, don't you? And the treasure…" he stretched out the treasure part as he raised his hand in front of hers, waiting for their hands to connect in some way.

Nami looked at it with a blank stare but frowned soon after, "I'm not going to become a pirate." She smiled as well and slapped his hand, a mischievous look in her eyes, "Rather than partners, let's just say we're cooperating, helping each other to achieve our goals!"

●ω●

"You're going too?" Nami asked Zoro, who was sliding off his black bandana off his arm, "What about your stomach injury?" She asked him.

Zoro smirked the way he always did—making Luffy wonder if it was the type of smirk a tiger made—as he tied the bandana around his head, getting prepared to go full out. "It's all healed." He said. It wasn't that far from the truth in reality, but it was still far from healed. There was still a pretty thick gash near his hip and if he made the wrong move, it would definitely start to bleed again, and most likely return to the way it was before, maybe not as bad, but somewhere along those lines. "More importantly than the injury done to my body, is the injury my name suffers because all I did in my last fight was getting hurt." He finished tying his bandana with a pull and rested his hands on his swords, getting a feel for them again, "Should we go?" He asked, particularly to Luffy.

The pirate captain cracked his knuckles and grinned, although it was nowhere near as menacing as his crewmember's smirk. "Yeah, let's go."

●ω●

After walking past a few more corners, following the track of smell of Boogle and by using Nami's navigation skills, they got there in less than a few minutes. When they had passed by the last corner to get back to the pub they were at before, he caught sight of his friend being choked, fresh blood mixed with saliva and the smell of metal in the air. The neko rushed forward, his confidence non-wavering and grabbed the extra joint grasping Boogle's neck. With one hand, he held onto the collar of the brown armor so that he wouldn't do any more damage to his friend and with his other hand, he pulled away the hand that held onto his neck in the first place. Luffy looked up and grinned, "I've kept my promise. I've come to beat you!" His tail swayed expectantly, wanting to get in a good fight.

"Oh?" Buggy said, reconnecting his hand back onto his arm, "So you come without a single trace of fear by your own will. You morons." Luffy listened to his speech, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Zoro did the same (putting his hands inside his pockets) and looked at Nami as she spoke to both of them, telling them that she didn't care that they were going to fight and they could do as they wished, but she was only there for the map and the treasure. Zoro smirked his shark-like grin as he tail flipped excitedly, responding to her that he knew that.

Boogle sat up from his fallen position and glared at the teenagers. "What did you come back here for? You three just stay out of this. This is _my_ war!" He positioned his spear to attack the teenagers, "I'm the one who must protect this village! Don't interfere!" Luffy didn't even wait. He smelled the defensive hostility and he was sure Zoro did as well, since he also grabbed one of his katana. Luffy charged at Boogle before he could even move an inch and slammed the chief's head in the nearest wall, more blood leaving his face than his mouth. The black neko checked his friend and deemed Boogle 'unconscious'.

He could smell the confusion in Nami and Buggy and the almost humorous-like surprise from Zoro. Zoro's weird though so Luffy didn't really put much thought into it. "You-You idiot! What the hell was that for? Why did you do that to the chief?" Nami yelled at him.

Luffy grew a small grin and glared at the pirates above them. At first, he still found it strange that the pirates hadn't yet noticed his and Zoro's tails, but he just assumed it was because they were idiots. "He would just get in the way." Luffy replied to her. Zoro walked next to Luffy and told him that what he did was a smart thing to do because he would just get hurt, so it would've been best if he was unconscious. They whipped their tails at the same time, trying to get the pirates to be more serious about this. Maybe hunt them down, or something. It would be more fun that way.

Both nekos smirked when they saw the reactions of a few pirates, one going up to their captain and whispering something in his ear. When they separated, Buggy eyed the raven-haired pirate captain and the ex-bounty hunter. His eyes suddenly widened in realization as his mouth slammed onto the floor. Suddenly, he yelled to his men to take the opposing enemies _alive_ , but Luffy had already gone over this with Zoro.

While walking towards the pub, the nekos (and Nami) had talked to each other about what they were going to do when the pirates realized who they really were. Because of what they had done earlier and what they had done to ShuShu's treasure, they were going to make fun of them and then beat them up. Well, Luffy said that but because Zoro also felt like mocking a dumb pirate (and of course, beating them up afterwards), he had agreed to the plan. If you could call it that. They had also gone over that they shouldn't take any risks. They were dealing with people who would definitely sell them once they got their hands on them, so, whatever the cause, they were going to make the pirates want them alive, but at the same time, dead.

Luffy grinned at hearing this and Zoro sighed, practically knowing what he was going to say. He knew he was going to like the insult, but he wasn't too sure what the outcome could be, so, he just went with whatever his captain was going to go with. "Hey you!" The black neko said, successfully getting the attention of the pirates who were scrambling around the rooftop, not knowing what to do yet. "Huge, red, ugly, big nose!" Luffy said, his tail whipping all too happily.

The pirates stared at him in shock, unable to process what might happen next. To the nekos though, it was very obvious. They smelled gunpowder, large amounts of it packed inside iron. "Fire the Buggy special cannonball!" Oh, they were right, "Fire!" he said, once the cannonball was inside the cannon.

The cannon then immediately shot out a speeding cannonball, heading straight in the direction of the trio (and unconscious chief). Nami ran out of the way, but Zoro noticed the complete immobility of his captain. He smelled no fear, so he scratched that off, but he immediately calmed down when instead of any negative smells, he smelled complete confidence coming from the other neko, something that screamed out, _'don't worry, I know what I'm doing'._ The tiger's tail calmed down from its puffy state as he straightened his pose, trusting his captain.

Once the cannonball was terrifyingly close, Luffy inhaled vast quantities of air, all going into his body. His body then become like a balloon, round but at the same time, seemingly fragile. The cannonball made contact with his stomach, worrying Zoro for a second, but when he realized there was no explosion, he got a closer look. The weapon seemed to go inside him before Luffy forced the cannonball towards the pub again, reminding him about the time at the marine base, making the tiger wonder if it was the same thing.

The pub was completely obliterated, exploding in every direction one could think of. The neko caressed his hat, making sure it was still there as Nami yelled at him, asking him what he was. Zoro sighed, wondering what he had gotten himself into when he had joined the rubber idiot. Well, he didn't really mind, seeing how he wouldn't be alone and that he had someone of his species always with him.

The trio stared at the mass destruction of the pub. Sniffing the air, both nekos knew the easier pirates were already dealt with because of most of the metallic smell and because of the complete silence that came with it. Nami had basically cracked, not understanding one bit how Luffy had done such a thing with his strange body and demanded an explanation, although it didn't really fill her in since all he really told her was the name of what he had done, not the devil fruit itself.

They heard a slight shuffle and the sound of bodies dropping. Of course, because of the nekos sensitive ears, they had heard the commotion before the explosion which sounded much like feet scrambling and suddenly silence, although there was the sound of running as well, but the stopped running could've meant that they had either stopped or they couldn't use their feet. Looking at what had made the sound earlier, they had guess that the poor pirates couldn't use their feet since Buggy had used them as a shield, the same for another pirate who was protected from behind the lion.

Mohji, the man Luffy had fought before, had awoken but after some conflicts with both the man behind the lion and his captain, they had thrown him towards the trio. Luffy would've felt bad for the man but he had destroyed ShuShu's treasure so he left no room for mercy. Immediately, when he was close enough, Luffy swung his leg and connected his foot on the man's head, making him spit out blood and sending him back to sleep.

When Luffy had kicked Mohji, another one of the pirates came rushing towards him on a unicycle, readying his sword to slice. Luffy didn't need to worry though seeing how the other neko had already gotten in front of Luffy and stopped the blade with his own. "Oh, thanks Zoro." He said to his swordsman, a bit surprised.

Zoro looked at him with a grin before looking back at his opponent. "If it's all swords, I'm all for it." He said, glaring at the acrobatic.

"It's an honor, Roronoa Zoro. Too bad I can't kill you." He said. Surely, Buggy would've definitely wanted them dead but, apparently he wasn't as dumb as they thought, "Captain said you'd be great for money."

The tiger grinned, "Oh really? Earlier, it seemed like he wanted to kill us." His tail whipped violently. The thought of being sold was terrifying in its own way but Luffy had always been wary of those types of people. The citizens in his hometown only added more terror since they always told him stories about what they did to them.

"There can always be changes in the orders." The other pirate grinned, more calmly than Zoro.

Luffy glimpsed at Zoro's wound and smiled. The wound was covered by bandages but all he could really smell was dried blood. It was that sickly sweet coppery smell that told him that wound was healing amazingly. He smiled internally as he thought about the order he had given Zoro so that he could heal and boy, did he feel smart for once. He imagined what would happen if he hadn't given that order or if he couldn't purr at all. How would the fight turn out then? He wouldn't know, but he was hoping that Zoro would be stronger than his opponent either way.

Zoro felt the gaze from his captain and knew he was looking at his wound. Luckily, it had healed quite well so he didn't pay much attention to it, although the bandages were preventing him from certain movements that needed the flex of his waist, but, he imagined it wasn't going to bother him too much.

He shook his thoughts away when he smelled something burning. Normally, it would be mistaken as anger, since fire for normal nekos wasn't all too common, but he was dealing with pirates now so he didn't bet. He ducked when the man lowered his scarf and he was smart in doing so. Fire came out from the acrobat's mouth in the form of a circus performance. The pirate continued to stay on his unicycle, raising his leg in an attempt to hit Zoro directly on his wound. Zoro, barely seeing it from the corner of his eye, so he tensed up and glared at the foot.

' _Finally.'_ Zoro thought, gripping both his swords in his firm hands. He felt his body easily tense up even more as his tail practically stopped high in the air, bristling madly. He knew Luffy would feel it—the hostility—but he wasn't going for that type of mode. As the foot drew closer, he opened his mouth wide, allowing a free entrance for the foot to slam freely into his mouth, well, that's what the enemy thought. Sadly, Zoro bit down on the foot, getting a fresh taste of blood in his mouth since he took out his fangs. Being a tiger himself—a carnivore known for killing its prey—Zoro desperately wanted to get a taste of the blood, but, too much could be bad and he didn't want to lose his control to the tiger, so, he spit out the crimson liquid and ignored the metallic taste. His tail bristled as his ears tingled, finally getting a chance to taste blood in what seemed like ages.

The enemy yelped by the sudden counter and tried pulling his leg away. Zoro gladly did so. He didn't want any more blood in his mouth. It would drive his systems crazy. He massaged his wound, unconsciously checking if it had opened in any way as the acrobat fell down and tried to apply pressure to his new wound. A tiger's fangs were to never be messed with. "What the hell! Stupid cat!" The acrobat cursed loudly, getting to his feet once again.

Zoro looked at Luffy who had stared at him with a wide grin. He was probably laughing uncontrollably on the inside if he knew his captain well enough. He didn't know the reason why he was giggling, but if he had to guess, it was probably because of the confused and clueless expression on the acrobat's face. He then changed his glance to Nami and although he was expecting a little more out of her, he was kind of surprised to simply see her rubbing her foot with her other sympathetically, as if she had expected it. Hopefully, she had thought that it was because of his tiger-like blood because he didn't want to be thought of as a rabid cat.

He calmed his systems and took in a deep breath, tasting a bit of blood that still lingered on his tongue. He was expecting his opponent to kick him once again, but he probably learned from that mistake and went ahead and used a smoke bomb. It wasn't irritating for his eyes but he couldn't see either way. He resorted to using his ears and smell, tracking down where the acrobat could've went. After smelling a bit of blood come nearer to him, he positioned his swords and when the acrobat was right in front of him, he brought his swords down, not giving the man to dodge or even see the attack. Zoro smirked, thinking how he had used his opponent's attack against him.

He fell off his unicycle but as he fell, he managed to get a kick on Zoro's side, also causing him to wince in pain. The tiger's tail instantly reacted, coiling it around his wound as if protecting it from any more painful attacks.

He had heard a few of the pirates who had barely woken up to see their commander sliced, a few calling out to him. They called out to him, telling him to get up. Zoro grunted, his eyes glaring at his opponent who laid on the floor, steadily getting up. He was annoyed by the constant yelling, his ears once again wanting to fall of his head and shrivel up from the amount of noise it had to withstand in only a day.

Cabaji got up and raised his sword high, protecting himself from Zoro if he were to attack again as he rode his unicycle again. His wounds were obviously hurting seeing how the acrobat panted and shivered with any small breeze, but Zoro didn't pay much attention to that. He wouldn't show mercy to his enemies.

Nami tapped Luffy's shoulder and told him that she was going to grab the treasure inside the pub. Since she was stealthy enough and because most of the pirates were unconscious, she told him that she was going to take it and that she didn't really care if they won the fight or not. Luffy absolutely had no problem with that because he trusted his swordsman enough. She ran into an alleyway he assumed would lead to the back of the pub to where the warehouse she spoke about was.

Cabaji pulled out many spinning tops from underneath his cloak and crossed his arms, ready to throw them at Zoro. "Take a taste of the best trick that I have!" The tops started to spin rapidly on top of the pirate's arms as he flung his arms, chucking the tops in the air as they spun towards Zoro. "Acrobat technique! 'One Hundred Tops Typhoon!'" Zoro stared at the tops, trying not to get hit by them.

When one would get close enough, the tiger would slice the tops and would avoid being hit by the ones he couldn't counter against. He knew the tops were a distraction for him so he tried to keep track of his actual enemy. Luckily, he had appeared from above him so he thought that he would be able to actually connect his katana once more. He glared high above him, the sun blinding his normal vision so he squinted enough to actually see him. Cabaji positioned his sword to stab Zoro from above, leaving enough time for the tiger to either counter or dodge.

What he wasn't expecting though was that the pirate captain, Buggy, would come in and try to grab him, allowing and easy kill for the acrobat. Zoro was easily distracted by the separated hand from the clown captain, too distracted.

Because of his distraction, he didn't even notice the shift in winds behind him and the sudden disappearance of his captain. He continued to stare at the gloved hand, not having any time to dodge, but, he sucked in a whole lot of air involuntarily when he saw a flash of red and blue, only letting it out when he realized what he was looking at.

Luffy smashed the hand onto the ground, stomping it harder and harder, grinding it on the pavement, making sure that Buggy wouldn't be able to use his fingers for a few days. "Luffy!" Zoro was honestly scared, his tail was bristling crazily but he shook his head and looked up, seeing the acrobat just as surprised.

"Don't interfere with Zoro's fight!" Luffy said, grinding his fangs together as his tail whipped violently, deadly as a rattlesnake. Buggy cursed at Luffy for stomping on his foot—as hard as a boulder he might add—as Zoro grinned, letting out a heavy breath as he slid in his third, white sword in his mouth. Immediately, he let out his ferocious aura, sending chills down his captain's spine.

Luffy had felt that strange feeling before. During he and Zoro fought with the marines, he had felt that same sensation disperse around Zoro, but it only happened when he pulled out his third sword, so, it made him wonder just what happens when he pulls out a third sword. The aura around the swordsman was terrifying as well. It resembled a truculent beast, ready to tear apart its prey. This intrigued the black jaguar, seeing how that had never really happened to himself although he was sure he was fully capable of such an aura.

Zoro dodged the attack from above him and glared at Cabaji, sending fear down the man's spine. Because of this intimidation, Cabaji lowered his guard, trembling a bit by both the tiger's glare and because of his wounds. Zoro smirked devilishly and crossed his arms, swords high and next to the sides of his body as he bowed his head a bit, the katana in his mouth over the one in his hand, "Oni…" he charged at the acrobat who had suddenly snapped out of his trance, "Giri!" Zoro uncrossed his arms and positioned the hilt of the sword differently in his mouth using his jaws, making three perfect cuts on his enemy.

Luffy grinned when Cabaji collapsed on the floor, proud of Zoro. Zoro sheathed his swords and swayed a bit, noticing his wound had opened a bit during the fight. A small amount of blood oozed through his bandages so he wiped it off with his hand, wiping his hand on his pants where the blood was less visible. He reached above his head and grabbed his bandana softly, holding a large portion of the cloth and swung it off his head, holding it in his palms and tying it around his arm. He walked towards Luffy and continued to sway uneasily, yawning.

"I guess it's your turn now. I'm a little tired but it would be a bummer to miss out your fight." Zoro said, smirking after he had yawned.

Luffy smiled and grabbed his arm on the brachial and swung it around, testing the muscles in his arms. "If you want, you can sleep, but feel free to watch. Now, I'll finish this off." He turned to face Buggy lost his smile, replaced by a serious grin, "Hand over the Grand Line map." He said.

Buggy scoffed, "That place isn't exactly somewhere nameless pirates like yourself can go as they please. So what are you planning to do there? You wanna go have a sightseeing tour?"

"I'm gonna become the pirate king." Luffy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Zoro smirked but smiled when he saw the plain expression on his captain's face but the completely flustered look on Buggy, his ears twitching.

"That's quite too bad. You won't get to go to the Grand Line if you're sold. Even if you somehow managed to become king, I would be god! I will get all the treasure in this world! Don't even dream about it!" The clown pirate yelled at the other captain, enraged by his dream.

"Shut up! Skip the lecture and start!" Luffy cracked his knuckles.

"Watch your mouth." The clown captain scowled, taking out four knives for each of his hands.

Zoro looked around him and set his eyes on a few steps near a house, so he walked towards them and rested his body on a similar pillar like the one in the pet food store. He curled his tail around his wound, caressing it, thinking if he should purr again. He thought for a moment and realized no one was close enough or in his vicinity to notice or make fun of him about it so he let the vibrating noise grumble through his throat as he felt the magic work his wound. He didn't dare close his eyes though, he was curious to see how the fight would end and what new tricks his captain held.

"Seeing your straw hat reminds me of a guy I knew a long time ago. The impudent red-haired guy." Buggy growled, eyeing his hat.

Luffy perked his ears and glared at Buggy, growling as well. A specific man popped into his mind when he thought about straw hat and red hair. His tail whipped violently as he stared into the eyes of the clown pirate.

"Shanks…?"

"You know Shanks?" Luffy asked Buggy, peaking Zoro's interest. The tiger had heard the name before, but he never really paid much attention to the man because he wasn't a famous swordsman.

Buggy quirked his eyes and glared at Luffy, cocking his head to the side a bit. He then continued to tell the neko how he wasn't going to tell him either way. Being the stubborn neko he was, Luffy grinned and readied his fist to attack, "Then let me make you say it by force." Buggy continued to laugh, stomping the ground until knives came out from the tips of his shoes, stating that some things wouldn't bounce off of him even though he is rubber, which Luffy confirmed, not ashamed of that fact.

Zoro swayed his tail, not completely sure what they were talking about before but he did feel a need to know the struggles and weaknesses of his captain.

Buggy lifted his leg and jumped in the air, spinning his waist and letting his lower torso fly towards Luffy as it spun with the knives in every direction. Luffy was surprised but he managed to dodge it by jumping, his tail coiled around his leg so that wouldn't be cut by the knives. Buggy through more knives as the neko was still in the air, confident that Luffy wouldn't be able to dodge. Luffy grabbed a pole from one of the houses near them and swung himself towards it, avoiding all the knives.

Luffy stretched his arm in an attempt to punch Buggy, but he simply moved his head and he was out of danger, stating that he had an interesting ability but it had its flaws. He was about to cut it and rip apart the arm still close to him, but Luffy had grabbed a window sill behind Buggy and released his weight, rapidly going towards Buggy, "Gomu Gomu no…" Luffy stretched his arm out, wanting to hit Buggy on his throat. "Scythe!" But Buggy simply detached his head and avoided the attack.

The neko grinned, coming up with various solutions to this very situation. He uncoiled his tail from around his leg and quickly curled his tail around Buggy's arm, surprising him. Still being pulled because of the lack of his weight, they rapidly sped towards the house Luffy had latched onto. He lifted his leg still in the air and kicked Buggy on his stomach, crashing him towards the ground. The other pirate spit out a good amount of blood and laid on the ground for a moment before slowly getting up again, grinning madly as he latched onto his knives that had fallen out of his grasp from the impact while Luffy continued to crash into the house he had grabbed onto, completely destroying it.

He emerged from the ruins of the house and huffed, swinging his tail and sighed, dusting himself. The neko could smell onions again, mostly from the destroyed pub but also from behind a corner of a house. He didn't care though. He had a fight to win. Looking back at Buggy, the enemy pirate shot out his arm holding the four knives between his fingers, only for Luffy to catch the disembodied arm. He wasn't expecting though that the amputated arm would separate again, closer to the hand, and shot once more at Luffy, cutting his cheek underneath his scar and another above his eye and a small section of his hat.

Luffy was thrown off his feet and crashed on the ground, sitting up again. He felt his hat and pulled it off from his head, staring at the missing part on the rim of his hat. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, not wanting to tear his eyes away from the hat but wanting desperately to tear Buggy. "This is my treasure! I will never forgive anyone who messes with this hat!" He yelled at the other pirate captain, his fangs forming out of his upper jaw and his hair and tail bristling as if he was in the coldest climate on the Grand Line.

Luffy took no time to wait for Buggy to say anything else after his smirk. He pounced on Buggy and continued to punch him on the face, not noticing the hand with the knives rapidly going towards his hat. He noticed at the last second and grabbed his hat, trying to run away but it had already been stabbed by the three knives, leaving three large cuts in the hat. The impact caused the hat to fall out of his hands and return to Buggy with his separating ability, "What sort of treasure is this rag-like hat?" Buggy mocked, laughing in pleasure at the disturbance he did to the hat with his knives.

Luffy grit his teeth and seethed through his closed fangs, his tail bristling violently, more than ever. The blood from his previous cuts on his face continued to drip from his jaw, angered sweat dripping as well.

 _This is my favorite hat, you know._

 _When you become a great pirate in the future…_

 _You'll return that hat to me._

Luffy charged at Buggy, running faster than he normally would be able to do on a normal occasion. "That's the hat I swore myself to with Shanks!" Buggy threw the hat on the floor and spat on it, telling him that he used to be on the same pirate ship with him and that they were comrades as pirate trainees. Luffy continued running, Buggy separating his head thinking he was going to punch him. No, Luffy was going to do something much, _much_ worse. Luffy stopped right in front of Buggy and raised his leg and at lightning speed and force, he threw his leg in between the pirate's thighs, shocking him.

He then kicked his stomach again and pounced right on him, daring him to say those words again. His ears laid back on his head as his tail continued to sway and bristle. He was going to explode if he didn't finish off Buggy soon. The pirate was going to attack again but Luffy slammed the side of his hand on his face, sending him to the ground again, telling him to stay still.

Luffy hopped off Buggy and grabbed his hat, holding it close to him as he listened intently on Buggy's story on how he and Shanks were mutual and how he had eaten his devil fruit when he really wanted was the treasure and not the fruit itself. Zoro had fallen asleep during the story, not really understanding what it had to do with Luffy so he found no interest in it. Buggy separated his upper torso as it flew in the air, his arms spread wide apart, "So that's why I promised myself! If I can't get anything under the sea, then I'd settle for every treasure above it! Because of that, whoever touches my treasure, whoever that is I never…" he charged at Luffy, but sped right past him, leaving the black jaguar confused, "Leave them alive!"

The neko looked behind him, shocked at who Buggy was really charging at. Right behind him, he saw Nami, carrying a large, brown sack with what he imagined was treasure.

He wore a blank expression. The black jaguar looked where the pair of legs was still standing there without the upper torso, staring at it with a thoughtful expression. He flexed his leg a bit and then walked towards the legs. He raised his leg and swung it in between the legs, causing the pirate to stop in his tracks and grimace in pain and agony.

Zoro woke up to a cracking sound, twitching his ears. He gazed around his location and finally found Luffy, his leg in between a disembodied lower torso. Getting a closer look, the gears in his mind clicked and his gasped, his tail puffing up. He swore, his tail had always puffed up ever since he joined Luffy, but, he was pretty sure that no man would be able to reproduce after that and he doubted, that unless he had a doctor, no hospital was going to fix that. He slowly closed his eyes, glad that he didn't actually see it. Too bad his hearing was extra sensitive. He could perfectly hear the broken whine of the poor pirate and before, he heard a loud cracking sound. He hoped that Luffy had stepped on a few rocks before he did that to make such a sound.

Buggy collapsed on the floor and withered, trembling and shivering, cursing at Luffy. The neko grinned and rested his hands on his hips, "You opponent is me." He looked at Nami who was sighing in relief, still grasping onto her treasure, "Oi! Put that treasure down and go somewhere safer. You're going to get chased again otherwise."

Nami almost gasped, arguing about how she wasn't going to abandon her treasure behind. When Buggy had overheard the 'my' in Nami's sentence, he questioned her. "Of course. Since I'm a pirate treasure thief and I just stole form a pirate, I'm telling you this treasure is mine." Luffy hit the palm with his fist, understanding the logic behind it.

Suddenly, Buggy called out a new attack and split every part of his body, looking as if someone had cut him to see how many times one could slice him. He then let his sectioned parts fly around everywhere like confetti, mostly surrounding Nami since she still held onto his treasure.

Honestly, Luffy had no idea how to handle the situation so he looked around his surroundings. His tail brushed against something and when he turned to look at it, he saw two feet walking around like a blind chicken. This had gotten his attention because he realized that the feet weren't flying like the rest of the body parts, so he grabbed the limps and took one out of the shoe. He grinned but squished his nose at the smell. He covered his nose with his black, furry tail and sighed when he couldn't smell much of the bad odor from the foot. He then commenced to tickle the underside of the foot, feeling satisfied when he heard a choked laugh. Another idea popped into his mind as he slammed the knuckles of the toes onto the hard pavement, earning a scream in the distance. He pulled on the tender and flabby skin on the ankle and pinched it, wondering how the clown was surviving the 'torture'.

Buggy had been distracted so Nami took the chance to slam him with the bag of treasure. Unluckily, the pirate had grabbed it as well when she attempted to hit him. Luffy took the chance to kick the clown on the cheek, sending him sprawling on the ground with most of the treasure flying everywhere around him. He cleaned off the blood from near his eye and smirked, "That last kick was for the village chief." Nami thanked him but he remembered about the Grand Line map, so he rushed to go find it. "Alright, I've got it." He said, picking the dusty map from the ground, a good distance away from Buggy who was only a head and very little of his neck.

"Wait, rubber kid." Luffy heard the irritating voice from behind him.

He turned around and faced Buggy who was hovering a bit over the ground. "You're still alive."

"I'll kill you once and for all! Gather up! Bara Bara parts!" Buggy ordered the rest of his body parts. Luffy was expecting a massive shower of body parts to swarm around him and combine with the rest of the clown, but he only saw two hands and two feet reattach back to the body. Luffy stared at the miniature body below him, unsure of how to react by the sight in front of him. Buggy was quite literally, only a head with hands and feet. No neck, no torso, no arm and no legs.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking for these, would you?" Both Luffy and Buggy looked at Nami who tightened a rope. Looking at what she was tying, Luffy was amazed to see the rest of the body parts tied together with no possible way of escape.

Buggy gaped at his body parts while Luffy laughed uncontrollably, stretching his arms behind him as he laughed. "A thief definitely has some cool skills. Leave the rest to me!" Luffy laughed some more. He then stopped his laughter and grinned at Buggy who stared at him with a terrified expression. "Get lost, Buggy. Gomu Gomu no…" Buggy pleaded for him to stop, terror in his eyes, "Bazooka!" Luffy finished, letting his arms retract to normal length as they sent the miniature pirate flying in the air.

Zoro shook his head as his ears twitched by the loud sound of something slapping. It sounded like when Luffy would retract his body parts at high speeds so he imagined that's what the sound was. Looking around him, he saw Luffy walking towards him with a wide grin. "Did you finish the fight?" He grunted as he stood up and stretched his limbs, feeling satisfied by his nap.

"Yeah. We also got the map and treasure." Luffy said.

Zoro looked behind his captain and Nami and saw a large group of people walking towards them. He stared at Luffy and quickly gestured his head behind them, silently telling him that people were coming. Luffy understood and coiled his tail around his waist, perfectly hidden because of the sweater he wore. Zoro on the other hand had to lay his ears against his head and stuffed his tail in his trousers, not as comfortable as Luffy.

The group turned out to be the people of the village. They asked the trio about the Buggy pirates and Nami responded to them, telling them that most of the pirate crew was still in the vicinity. They noticed the unconscious chief—bloodied as well—lying next to them, so they rushed to him and tried to aid him.

Luffy looked at them and apologized—although he didn't sound sorry at all, "I did that to the chief."

Immediately, all the villagers glared at him and raised their weapons which mostly consisted off brooms and sticks. Nami immediately argued with Luffy about his idiocy. They asked them with plain hostility if they were pirates, and, Luffy, being the blunt kid he was, told everyone with a proud voice, "We are pirates!"

All the villagers charged at them, the ones on the front wielding actual weapons like swords and spears. Zoro, after hearing the strong and powerful claim, doubled over and grabbed his stomach, laughing far too much that was unhealthy for his wound while Nami called Luffy an idiot with much more anger than before. Once the villagers were far too close, Luffy turned around and grabbed one of the smaller bags of treasure from Nami, charging towards the other direction followed by Nami. Zoro wiped a tear from his eye and sighed, running after his captain at incredible speeds.

Luffy commenced to explain to Nami that the village was filled with good people because everyone was getting extremely mad for just one person. After he had said that, both he and Zoro smelled a familiar canine smell, smiling at the newcomer of the party. "ShuShu!" Luffy grinned as he turned to look at the small white dog, barking madly at the villagers.

●ω●

They finally made it to the port, Zoro and Luffy taking out their tails because the port was devoid of any people. Nami walked towards a decorative boat with various colors and sighed, thanking ShuShu for their escape. Luffy looked at the boat and had asked her if it was hers, but she claimed that she had stolen it from some stupid pirates. Zoro perked his ears and remembered back when he had helped those three pirates in the middle of the sea, but it was a wide world out there so he really doubted that it was her who had stolen from them. He was proven wrong though when three heads popped out from the boat, "We have been waiting for you, thief!"

The three stood up proudly as they each said a piece of what they wanted to say to Nami. Zoro squinted and stared at the three pirates, his ears and tail perked high as he grinned and took a step closer to the three. "Oh hey, it's you guys!" he said, his grin turning into a shark-like smirk. The pirates turned their attention to the green-haired swordsman and immediately, they started to sweat as if they had witnessed a volcano explode and they were the cause of it. They stuttered undecipherable words before they each jumped into the water and swam as far away as possible, trying to escape from the tiger.

"Wow, Zoro. You only said 'hi' and they jumped in the ocean." Luffy grinned, his tail swaying happily, "You must be very scary!"

"Oi."

●ω●

Luffy stared at the pirate mark on Nami's ship, recognizing it as Buggy's. He asked about it but he only received a sigh as his answer. Zoro laid on the sides of their boat and massaged his wound, purring again. The two nekos perked their ears though when they heard familiar footsteps charging towards them at quick speeds, but still quite slow. They had already started sailing but they looked at the person who stood there at the harbor, panting and void of his brown armor.

"Mister Chief." Luffy said, staring at the old man.

"I'm sorry!" He yelled at them, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I owe you!"

The trio smiled happily, "Don't worry about it! Just live happy lives!" Luffy said, waving his arms.

●ω●

They were far at sea when Nami attempted to drown Luffy, his life literally hanging by the edge of the boat. "But, half of the village was destroyed! It needed some money to repair it!" Luffy said, trying to get out of his desperate situation.

"THAT'S MY TREASURE!" Nami yelled in his ears, making him tremble from the loudness of her voice in his cat ears.

Zoro continued to laugh. He hadn't laughed so much in one day before ever since he started hunting pirates. He continued to laugh until Nami stopped her attempt to murder her temporary captain and comrade as she laughed it off, calling him an idiot. He stared at her as his puffed tail continued to tremble. "Jerk."

●ω●

Luffy poked the top of his hat, proud of Nami's fix of his hat, that was until he had poked the hat a bit too hard and accidently made a hole through his hat, getting stabbed by the needle she held in her hand. Zoro had been sleeping but was rudely awaken by the loud screaming and by the ticklish sensation of Luffy's tail brushing against his stomach, making him squirm a bit before he woke up.

"I'm hungry." He said, swatting Luffy's tail away, "And watch where you swing your tail, Luffy. Geez." He said when it slapped him on the face.

"Hey! An island." Luffy said, successfully getting the attention of the green-haired swordsman.

Immediately, Luffy grabbed the oars and continued to paddle towards the island, Zoro resting his head and legs on the sides of the boat. "All we need is food though, right now." His tail brushing the waves of the water, trying to find any movement in the sea that would take a bite. He hoped for lunch.

●ω●

"We've reached the island!" Luffy said, hopping off the boat and onto the hardened ground, his tail hovering just above the rocks. Nami sighed and told the excited neko that the island was completely isolated and that nobody should be on the island, meaning that there was nobody for him to ask to join, but he ignored her and faced the two docked boats. "Hey, Zoro, come over here!"

Zoro's ears twitched as his tail seemed to look at Luffy instead of himself. He hopped off the boat and surveyed the area, seemingly completely void of humans. He sniffed the air and grinned. "There are animals here, though." He trotted towards Luffy as he did the same, smiling and confirmed.

"You're right." The trio walked further into the thick forest, Luffy and Zoro stopping when they heard what sounded like a chicken but seemed to be quadruple by the light sounds of feet. Luffy cocked his head as Zoro raised his eyebrow, curiosity getting the best of them as they looked past a bush and were met by a bored face. The creature continued to walk past them, giving Nami a chance to see it as well. The animal looked like a fox, but it had the tail of a male rooster and the top of its head bore a comb.

Nami questioned the animal but it simply walked past, going to the other side of the forest. As they walked deeper, Luffy continued to point out clueless animals as he said what least resembled their features. For example, he grabbed a large snake and called it a rabbit because of its rabbit ears and pointed at a boar but called it a lion because of its mane. Zoro sighed and twitched his ears, his ears reacting on their own as they found a disturbance that would normally not be normal in any forest. He turned his head and sniffed, then quirked his eyebrow. "Hey, Nami. I think you were wrong when you said this island is inhabited." He said, sniffing again before he told her.

"Why do you say that?" She turned and faced the tiger who continued to glare at a certain direction.

He and Luffy's ears perked high when they heard stumbling and a gasp from where Zoro was looking. They stared intently at the spot with curiosity as Luffy took a step forward. Before they could react though, they smelled gunpowder and the sound of a loud 'clink', a lot like a gun. Zoro jumped back as Luffy felt his chest be penetrated by a small, round piece of metal, the sound of a gunshot loud in their ears. Zoro looked at his captain as the bullet was sent back to somewhere else where it was originally shot from, getting a terrified yelp as someone began to stutter, "W-What the heck?"

Zoro pounced towards the light shrubs, landing on all fours—ready to claw at the enemy—but instead he just stared at a chest with a strange black bush on top of it, although it was quite suspicious since a pistol was right in front of it. "What…?" He murmured to himself as Luffy and Nami came from behind him, staring at the thing in front of them with suspicion. Zoro got up and sniffed once more. "Wait a minute…" he then approached the chest but as soon as he took as step closer, the wooden box immediately got up and started to run away, everyone jumping a few feet in the air by the sudden and unpredictable movement.

They thought they were going to lose the suspicious thing but they stood there when the chest had tripped from seemingly nothing—most likely his own feet—and continued to order around the trio, ordering them to pick him up with for some reason, a very angry town, even though he had fallen on his own. The trio walked closer to the fallen thing and stared at it, not sure of what their next actions should be. "It's a man?" Nami asked.

"So, that's what I've been smelling?" Zoro said, his ears perking up as his tail swayed from side to side, aggravated by the continuous yells from the 'man.'

●ω●

"You ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi? A devil fruit, right?" Gaimon had asked the neko captain, still trying to keep his mind under control by the fact that two nekos were in front of him while one had eaten one of the secrets of the sea.

Zoro yawned as the three continued to chat for some time, his black and white ears picking up pieces of their conversation from time to time as he studied the island from his spot. Gaimon had stated that for the twenty years he had been inside the treasure box and that before he was stuck inside, nekos were considered to be a very valuable treasure and that he wasn't sure if much had changed from then. If only he knew.

Luffy had attempted to pull out the man but it was considered useless since the Gaimon's body was practically one with the treasure chest. As usual, Luffy told him his dream as Zoro lazily rubbed small circles on the hard ground, bored and tired. He grew even more tired as Nami continued to explain to the two boys how the map of the Grand Line worked and how to read it, finishing with a small lecture of the pirate king Gold Roger.

Gaimon told his story about how he got stuck in the chest and how he played 'the Forest Guardian' to guard it for twenty years. They finally agreed that they were going to go to the top of the rock that he had seen the many chests and retrieve it, somewhat interesting the green-haired swordsman. He could use a good stretch.

They walked for a bit and they finally made it to the large rock. Luffy stuffed his hands in his pockets as Zoro eyed the top of the rock, trying to see if there was any man-made objects up there. He sniffed once more, smelling a faint whiff of metals and jewels— _too_ faint.

Luffy stretched his hand and grabbed the ledge of the rock, lunging himself to the top as Zoro enhanced his nails into more claw-like finger nails. He set his hand on one of the small outcroppings of the large rock and tested its durability before he—at incredible speeds—started to climb the rock, his nails digging deep into the stone. He jumped when he was near the ledge and retracted his claws, going towards Luffy as he grabbed one of the chests with a wide smile, telling the news to his friends.

"Quick! Drop them here!" Gaimon said, excited.

"No way!" Luffy retorted, his wide smile still plastered on his face. Zoro smelled the worriedness around Luffy, concerning him. He looked at the chests to grab one and do the deed himself but immediately saw why Luffy had refused to give them the chests. Sometimes, he felt as if his captain had too big of a heart. Nami yelled to him again, but Luffy sat crisscrossed on the ledge, still holding the chest.

"Zoro!" She said, giving up on Luffy, "Drop the chest!"

Zoro looked down and sighed, grabbing a treasure chest and hugging it in his grasp even harder. "Sorry. I also don't wanna." He said, sitting down next to Luffy as he rested his chin on the lid of the chest. Nami seethed even more, not understanding why they didn't want to throw down the chests.

Both nekos could smell the anger contaminate the air, but, even greater than the anger was a sadness that could only be expressed through happiness. "You-You guys are good people." He said, tears slipping from his eyes. "The treasure chests…" He started to wipe away the tears with his hands but was proven useless since more streams of tears spilled from his eyes, "Are empty, aren't they?"

Both Luffy and Zoro flinched but Luffy sighed as Zoro looked behind him, glancing at all the treasure chests Luffy had opened before he managed to get up. The jaguar nodded and set his chest next to him, Zoro doing the same. "They're all empty." Luffy said almost sternly. Zoro looked at his captain and smiled. He smiled even wider when Luffy burst out laughing, his hands resting on his knees. "Don't be disappointed, uncle! You meeting us after these twenty years is a really good thing too, 'cause if it had been thirty years, you might've already been dead!" Luffy grinned even wider and stared at Gaimon expectantly, "Don't worry, there is still he great treasure One Piece waiting for us!"

●ω●

"Are you sure? You're really going to stay on this island?" Luffy asked Gaimon.

"Yes. Thank you for inviting me, but I still want to be the 'Forest Guardian'. There are many rare animals in this forest. There were many people who came to this island to get those animals and living here for twenty years made me grow attached to those animals. I can't leave them behind." Gaimon said, smiling.

The pirate trio hopped on the small boat as they—not necessarily said 'goodbye', because Luffy never says goodbye—left the island.

 **Should I still be saying this? I mean, I've said it in the previous ones. Yeah, okay: Yep, still combining.**

 **(One) Piece out!**


	4. Chapter 4: Cat Fight

Chapter 4: Cat Fight

 **Really? Do I have to say it again?**

The pirates had conversed about planning more before they sailed to the Grand Line. They obviously needed a bigger boat than two dinghies, they needed more crewmembers and other than that, they didn't have any supplies or equipment to survive or for that matter, be safe. They decided to go to the next island in their path and look for a better ship as both Luffy and Zoro cheered out 'meat' and 'sake'.

"Ah!" Zoro looked towards the water—changing from his resting position to a striking one—and slapped the water, surprising Nami but exciting Luffy. Zoro slapped the slimy creature onto the outer side of the boat, successfully knocking it out as he pulled out the fish onto the dinghy. "Finally. All we ate was fruit."

"Yay! Zoro's the best!" Luffy said before stretching and grabbing the unconscious fish from Zoro's hands and stuffing it in his mouth raw, he hummed as he was filled with euphoria.

●ω●

Luffy set the oar on the floor of his boat, Zoro following his example as Nami walked on the island. Zoro, being the observant he was, sniffed the air and tugged Luffy's shirt before he hopped of the boat, flicking his tail as the other nodded, coiling his tail around his waist. Zoro tucked his tail in his trousers and was forced to tie his bandana around his head, even though he wasn't even in a fight. That's what annoyed him. He needed to wear his black bandana in publicity or else he would be easily recognized, but, as he thought about it, back in Orange Town, there was a man who had round ears on his head that appeared to belong to an animal, but he didn't want to take any risks.

The nekos hopped onto the island as Zoro looked around, trying to find the scents of people in their vicinity. "There they are." He pointed at the top of a ledge, Luffy seeing the four figures and hummed in confirmation, Nami being the only one who hadn't realized they were being watched from afar.

The three smallest figures ran away, yelling and screaming as if they had witness murder, abandoning the eldest member. The trio stared at the lone figure as he stuttered out undecipherable words. After a few seconds, he gathered his senses (by the smell) and stood high on the ledge, crossing him arms and stood proudly, although, for the nekos, it was clearly evident that he was just as scared as the other kids because of the onion smell in the room, "I am the great pirate fleet leader, Usopp, who is in charge of the security of this village! I'm also known as 'Captain', 'Captain Usopp'!" He jumped off the ledge without hurting himself and stood in front of the group, "It's best if you don't try to attack this village, because my eighty million men are not going to forgive you."

The pirate trio stood there, unconvinced. "You're lying, right?" Nami asked, breaking the emotionless silence.

After she had said that, the long-nosed kid started to squirm, holding his head as he started to sweat waterfalls from his face. "I've been caught!"

"You just said it yourself…"

"Did I just say that? Bad planning, bad planning indeed!"

"I actually thought Luffy was going to be convinced though. Turns out you're not completely vacant." Nami said, turning to look at the jaguar.

"That's not very nice." Luffy said, pouting. "Nekos can easily tell apart lies from the truth." Luffy said, glaring at Nami as her eyes instantly grew significantly smaller. He smelled the fear from behind him and looked at Zoro, who also had the same expression. He raised his eyebrow and looked at the swordsman, realization not yet having dawned on him, "What's wrong?"

"Neko?" The boy asked, his eyes wide with confusion and curiosity.

"LUFFY! YOU IDIOT! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU JUST SAID?" Zoro castigated the other neko, frightening him a bit but Luffy's scared eyes turned into awareness which turned into fear.

He screamed loudly, his eyes bulging out, "CRAP! I JUST SAID WE'RE NEKOS OUT LOUD!" He said, grabbing his head as his mouth fell onto the floor.

"No… you only said that you were a neko." Zoro hunched over a bit, tired, but he immediately got into the same state as Luffy when he processed what Luffy had said. Again. "THAT'S EVEN WORSE! WHY DID YOU INCLUDE ME?" the tiger hissed at his captain, ready to punch him a knock his lights out, but sadly, Nami punched both of them, yelling at them to stop revealing even more information than Luffy already had.

"You know, if you hadn't insulted Luffy, this wouldn't have happened…" Zoro said, rubbing his new injury as he grumbled insults at both her and Luffy.

They stared at the unknown boy who had a look of confusion plastered on his face. At first, everyone thought that he hadn't figured out anything yet so they were ready to change the subject, but unluckily, he spoke before they could. "Wait a minute… you guys are nekos…?" He said, practically whispering.

The trio cringed as both of the nekos bowed their heads slightly, but they rose their heads and glared at the other kid, Zoro looking the most intimidating from the two—probably even more intimidating than hell itself. "Say one word about us and we won't guarantee tomorrow."

●ω●

The boy—they learned that his name was Usopp while they were walking towards the village, explained to the pirates that they could get a ship, although not very big, from a wealthy family in the mansion, owned by the mansion's owner. He continued to explain that even though the owner was a sick, pitiful girl, she only inherited the money because of her parents who had died from an illness a year back. Despite the way he had said them, the nekos could smell the worriedness around Usopp, but they kept the thought to themselves.

After hearing the story, Nami had disposed of the idea of getting a ship on the island, although she didn't explain why. "Oh yeah, you said earlier that you're looking for companions."

Luffy looked at Usopp in curiosity, "Is there somebody who wants to be our companion?"

Usopp stood up from his seat as he pointed at himself with a wide grin but somewhat serious, "Let me be the captain and I'll join you."

Immediately, the pirate trio bowed their heads as their backs hunched down, each one staring at the table. "Never mind."

●ω●

After some time and a strange excuse later, Usopp had left the restaurant, leaving the pirates alone to enjoy the meal. The nekos could hear young voices from next to the restaurant but thought nothing of it, but the voices were followed by footsteps and the door being slammed open. Three young figures appeared at the door, panting after saying something about 'Usopp Pirates' but fear and confusion surrounded them when they got a good look at the real pirates.

The kids ran to the table where the trio was sitting at and raised their small wooden swords, the first one calling out to the pirates, the second one asking about Usopp and calling him captain as the last one ordered them to give him back.

Honestly, they would give him back but the problem was that they didn't even have him, so the three pirates simply stared at the kids with blank faces before Luffy grinned wide and patted his stomach, "What delicious meat!"

Immediately, all the kids stared at the pirate captain with horrid written all over their faces as clear as paint on white paper. Nami smiled as Zoro grew a mischievous grin which soon turned into a sadistic grin. He rested his head on his hand as he let his fangs come out a bit to show some more intimidation. His sadistic grin fit well with his haunting eyes, but the way he tilted his head added much more panic through the kids. "Your captain…" His smile grew impossibly even more vicious, "Was eaten." He said in a low voice, causing the kids to cry waterfalls and faint on the floor, hyperventilating.

When they did so, the nekos couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably as the kids continued to hyperventilate on the wooden floor, Nami yelling at the tiger because they had called her a hag.

Once both parties had recomposed themselves, the kids had explained to the pirates that Usopp had left for the mansion to tell the sick girl lies which the pirates questioned, not really understanding why the kids that him lying was a completely good thing. After some further explaining, Luffy completely acknowledged the fake pirate, proud of the fact that he would tell her fake tales to cheer her up.

"I like his 'nosiness'." Carrot said.

"I like the captain's 'cowardice.' Onion said.

"I like his lies." Onion said.

Zoro felt himself shift uncomfortable in his seat as he wondered what kind of strong pointes those were but he forgave him since he was using his lies to cheer the sick owner of the mansion. Luffy stood from his seat and punched the air, claiming that he was going to ask a ship from the mansion even though earlier he had agreed with Nami about not doing so.

●ω●

Luffy had greeted nobody at the front gates of the mansion but after doing so, he simply hopped over the gates and continued to trespass the area, leaving the kids and his friends confused and sighing. "Since we can't stop him, we'll have to follow him." Zoro said, crossing his arms as he watched his captain trespass even further past the gates.

They passed into the gardens and after some sniffing, they found Usopp talking to a blonde girl who was looking at him through a window. Luffy grinned at the sight of the girl, greeting her and looking at her state. If what the kids had said was true, then she was definitely getting better by the stories of Usopp. Usopp walked towards Luffy and slung an arm around his shoulder, smiling smugly, "These guys heard of my reputation and travelled far to see me here. They are the new members of the Usopp pirate group."

The tip of Luffy's tail flicked awkwardly, annoyed by the previous statement, "No. That's not… Look, we need a ship. A big one!" He said, his smile growing back on his face as he spread his arms apart, moving them in an upwards manner to show the figure of the ship.

He lowered his arms though when he heard a hostile but calm voice. His smile disappeared when he heard it. "What are you doing here? You can't just barge into the mansion like this." The girl tried to explain to him as both nekos narrowed their eyes, sensing something in the butler that would normally not be there for a normal worker. "You don't have to explain. I will ask about it later. Please, get out. Or is there something you need to say?"

"I want a ship." Luffy said, his smile not yet grown back. There was something about him that made the nekos want to stay away from him because there would be danger if you mingled with him the wrong way, but for both pirates, they didn't really care. Something in the butler made them want to strike at him for some unknown reason.

"No." he responded quickly and strictly. He glanced at Usopp and mocked him, mentioning his father in his mocking and how he was a _filthy_ pirate and that he wasn't surprised that the long-nosed teenager had turned out the way he was.

It also seemed that the sick girl had snapped, because in the next free second, she slammed her hands on the window sill and yelled at her butler, ordering him to apologize but he simply ignored her order and continued to mock Usopp and his father even more, angering Usopp to the point where even he looked intimidating.

Besides the fact that this was making Luffy and Zoro a bit grim, they knew that there was something more about the butler that they couldn't trust. He was a lying fiend. What he was saying was to make Usopp violent so that he could prove a point, and he succeeded. Usopp punched him on the cheek, making a few drops of blood fly in the air.

"I'M PROUD THAT MY DID IS A PIRATE! I'M PROUD THAT HE IS A BRAVE WARRIOR OF THE SEA! YOU'RE RIGHT THAT I LIKE TO LIE, BUT I AM PROUD OF HAVING A PIRATE'S BLOOD IN ME! I DON'T HAVE TO PRETEND THAT I'M NOT. I AM THE SON OF A PIRATE!" Usopp finished, sweat forming on his forehead from the yelling and emotional excess.

The black jaguar stared at Usopp a bit longer, digging through his memory, searching for something that would make him remember about that face.

The two continued their conflicts, the butler throwing more insults about how he and his father were related and that that was enough reason to kick him out, enraging Usopp to his fullest. The long-nosed boy was about to punch the butler again, but the girl had begged him to stop, covering her face with the palm of her hand so that not even her facial features were seen. "Klahadore isn't a bad person…" she didn't take her hand away. She was definitely crying. The smell, the way she hid her face and the fact that her voice was cracking, it was obvious for the nekos, "He's just concerned about me… That's why he's a little extreme…"

Klahadore slapped Usopp's away from the collar of his shirt, "Get the hell out of here." That wasn't a normal way for a butler to speak to _anybody_. "Savages like you are not welcome here! I'll let you off this time, but I warn you! Don't come here again!" He yelled at mainly Usopp, but it was also directed at everyone else. As much as Luffy hated to admit it, this wasn't what made him detest the man. There was something else surrounding him, but he couldn't place his finger on it, but whatever it was, it had to do something with greed.

Usopp left just as he was told, saying he was never going to come back to the mansion on his own will. Luffy tugged Zoro's arm, signaling him to leave to somewhere else. Zoro followed behind his captain, slightly turning his head to look at Klahadore. "Nami, come on."

●ω●

"Zoro."

"Yeah, I know. There was definitely something about that 'Klahadore' guy."

Both of the nekos trailed after Usopp's scent. Zoro had no obligation to follow Usopp but Luffy wanted to but he also needed to have a word with his swordsman. Luffy sniffed the air again, searching for the smell they were following since he had lost it for a second. "I can't place my finger on it, but I should know that smell. Do you know what that smell is, Zoro?" Luffy asked Zoro as they entered a thin forest.

"Kinda' smelled like betrayal, don't you think?" Zoro said, flicking his tail from side to side now that they were mostly hidden from any other people.

"Maybe." Luffy sighed, "I don't like him though."

"And you think I do?" Zoro glanced at his captain.

Luffy smiled and shook his head. "Of course not! Zoro doesn't like anybody who mocks other people, right?"

Zoro couldn't help but smile. He was going to agree but after sniffing the air, he looked ahead of them and saw the brown boy sitting at the edge of cliff, staring at the sea below and beyond. Luffy grinned and ran towards him, his silent feet not giving away his presence. He jumped at the top of a tree and let himself slide down from a branch, the instep of his feet resting on the top of the branch as the rest of his body flew in front of Usopp, scaring the daylights out of him. Zoro sighed and walked from behind Usopp, sitting next to him as Luffy greeted Usopp as if his way of introduction was something completely normal. "It's you! Why can't you be more normal?" Usopp practically screamed.

"That's how he always is." Usopp turned his head to look to his right and practically jumped in his spot when he saw Zoro sitting there, "Get used to it."

"How the heck did you guys even get here without making a sound? Geez…" He murmured.

Luffy slid his feet off the branch and let his body get pulled by gravity but he caught himself with his hands, somewhat doing a handstand but he let his body fall back so that he sat down. "You're Yasopp's son, right?" Luffy asked him, piquing Zoro's interest and making Usopp stare at Luffy as if he had just said he was going to become world famous.

"How do you know that?" Usopp asked him, his mouth wide.

"I've known him since I was a kid. You look just like him. No wonder I thought you looked familiar. I just realized that a moment ago." Luffy said, his hands resting behind him. Usopp asked Luffy where he was at this very moment, but Luffy simply shrugged but smiled wide when he looked at Usopp, "But, I'm pretty sure he is on Shanks the red-haired ship. Yasopp is one of my favorite pirates in that crew."

"Oh, that's interesting." Zoro grinned at Luffy and Usopp since they were at the left of him, "When you fought that clown guy, you two started talking about Shanks. So Usopp's dad is from that crew?"

"Yep." Luffy grinned at Zoro. After some more chatting about his dad, Luffy changed the subject to Klahadore, asking Usopp if he really wasn't going to speak with the girl again. After mocking the butler a bit, Luffy pointed below them. The other two looked down and saw two other figures standing in front of each other, one who was definitely the butler but the other figure was unidentifiable.

The butler was speaking with a man who wore a strange get-up. Both of the nekos strained their ears to listen in on what the two were conversing about. "Jango, I told you not to draw the attention of the villagers. Why did you sleep in the middle of the street?"

"How can I attract any attention? It's not like I look weird or something." The man named Jango claimed.

Klahadore pushed up his glasses with the palm of his hand, a dangerous look on his face, "So, are you all prepared for it?" The trio's curiosity grew much more now.

"Of course. We can start preparation 'Assassination Ojousama (miss, young lady, etc.)' anytime." Jango said. The neko's ears rose high as Luffy and Usopp gasped, Zoro being the only one not to make a noise. The butler and Jango continued to converse, Klahadore mentioning that he wasn't to be called 'Captain Kuro' since he had given up on that name three years ago. Usopp explained to the other two on how Kuro was a pirate captain that was famous for his careful planning but he was captured and executed by the marines three years back, but, as they continued to listen in on the pair's conversation, they were surprised to hear that Jango had been replaced as the new captain for that ship and that they were to kill the girl and make it appear as an accident. They planned some more, Jango stating that they were going to charge into the village and kill her. They then spoke of gaining her inheritance under Klahadore's name so that they could keep the money from her wealth.

Luffy stood up from his spot from hiding and took in a deep breath. "Don't hurt Ojousama!" the two men conversing from below looked up and stared at the neko, too far away to identify that he was really a neko. Zoro watched as Jango pulled out a ring connected to a string from under his jacket and held it in front of the trio as Usopp tried desperately to save himself from trouble.

"When I say one, two, Jango, you will fall asleep. One, two…" Usopp kept his eyes away from the pendulum, looking at the grass to prevent him from looking at the ring. "Jango." Zoro perked his ears and quickly pulled Luffy's tail, yanking it hard and earning a yowl from the jaguar.

"What the hell was that for?!" He yelled at the swordsman, completely distracted from the pain to realize that the technique hadn't worked on him. Zoro kept silent as he watched the hypnotist quickly fall asleep like a baby kitten. The hypnotist awoke after a few seconds and realized that his hypnotism hadn't worked on the boy, but the pirate captain Kuro figured that because the boy was nobody important, nobody would believe him and nobody would definitely believe Usopp, so they continued with the plan. Usopp's eyes were brimmed with non-visible tears as he rose from his spot and charged towards the village.

The nekos looked at each other for a moment, Luffy's angry scowl softening. "Zoro, come on!" he said, running after Usopp.

●ω●

"So pirates are going to attack tomorrow morning?" Nami crossed her arms as she looked at the nekos who were still breathing a bit hard from the run, "That's why your captain ran to the village in such a hurry to warn them." She then told the kids to run since they were the first to know and when they were gone, they walked for a bit through the village, noticing most of its inhabitants weren't present. The nekos could hear some yells from far away but they didn't pay much attention to it seeing how it wasn't none of their business.

Once the sun started to set, they saw Usopp walk towards them. Both Luffy and Zoro had perked their ears high (they already revealed to the kids that they were nekos because they were trustworthy) when they saw the long-nosed kid walk up to them, quickly wiping something off from his face, but because of the neko's sense of smell, they could clearly tell something had happened to make him cry.

But what Luffy and Zoro weren't expecting was that he suddenly burst out in laughter, claiming that it was just a lie and that he was having revenge on the butler, convincing the three kids that he really was lying. The nekos cocked their heads in confusion, but they soon understood what he was doing. The kids then felt somewhat betrayed by their captain, seeing how he made up a lie to get back at the butler even though he was mean. They then left for their respective houses, anticipated for dinner and thinking that tomorrow was going to be like every other day.

●ω●

"You lied because you didn't want them to be hurt, am I right?" Zoro asked Usopp. They had moved to the rocky shoreline so that nobody could hear them converse.

"Was it that obvious?" Usopp said grimly, barely glancing up from his spot to look at Zoro.

"No. It was a good act. Nekos can smell emotions much easier than humans. There was worry and fear in your smell." Zoro responded to him, also filling Nami in because she hadn't known before.

"But… I used to lie all the time. No one believes a word I say now. They're definitely going to attack in the morning, but no one believes me. They all think tomorrow will be another peaceful day…" He took in a deep breath as he shot up from his spot on the rock, "SINCE EVERYONE THINKS I'M A LIAR, I'LL PROTECT THIS VILLAGE MYSELF AND PREVENT THE PIRATES FROM ATTACKING! IN ORDER TO PROTECT THIS VILLAGE, THEN THIS WILL JUST BECOME ONE OF MY LIES!"

●ω●

Two cats crawled through every crevasse they could get into with their small bodies, finally meeting up at the very top of the crow's nest away from the sight of the pirates on the ship even though they were all asleep. "Find anything?" A white one with black stripes streaked throughout his body asked another, which was completely black with barely visible spots, only identifiable because of an added red tint on his body.

"Nah, Zoro. But Usopp said that they were going to attack on the other side of the island on the slope, remember? Why are they here?" Golden, glowing eyes stared at icy blue ones.

"That's true…" The white cat perked his ears high as his blue eyes widened, "Wait a minute! Luffy! What if the pirates aren't going to come up through there but somewhere around here?"

The black cat stood there for a moment, processing the question before his fanged mouth slacked down, his bristled tongue visible, "Z-Zoro! We need to tell them that they're on the wrong side!"

"Shut it Luffy! Be quiet!" Zoro hissed. "We need a plan!"

Luffy took in a few deep breaths and stared at Zoro with an uncommon serious expression, willing to do anything to get through this successfully. "It's almost going to be morning. One of us needs to go tell the others that they're on the wrong side while the other needs to keep track of these guys." Zoro tilted his head towards a random direction, not knowing which room the pirates were sleeping at.

"Okay, alright. You stay here. You're strong enough to hold back these guys so I trust you. I can go back to the others because I have a bit more sense of direction than you, okay Zoro?" Luffy nodded at his own statement, finding it perfect as Zoro hissed slightly at being told that he got lost easily, but he nodded as well. "Okay! I'm going right now, Zoro! See you in the morning." Luffy said before jumping off the crow's nest and landing perfectly on the deck, continuing to jump off the railing and onto the solid ground.

As soon as Luffy disappeared into the forest, Zoro heard doors open and the sound of voices, signaling everyone and him that they were going to be on the move.

 **Fℓαѕн вα¢к**

"Nami, you know that we can find their ship?" Luffy told her after some conversing. "Zoro said he saw a ship with the head of a black cat as their flag when we were in the forest and earlier Usopp said that they were the Black Cat Pirates, right? We can probably do some more stuff inside their ship." Luffy said, proud of his idea.

Nami gawked at Luffy's intelligence but sighed, agreeing with his idea. "But you two aren't stealthy at all… how will you possibly enter their ship without them noticing you?"

The two nekos looked at each other then grinned. In one second, two young men were right before Nami and Usopp's eyes and in the next, on the floor in front of them were their clothes hiding a small lump underneath the discarded clothes. After some struggling, two fuzzy heads came out from underneath the clothes. One was completely black with beautiful, red tinted golden eyes and a red tinted coat as the other one had a cold but beautiful look since his fur was nicely groomed, the stripes on the cat's body perfectly outlined by a darker black and the blue, ice-like eyes matched it perfectly.

Immediately, Nami slapped her hands together as she let out a small squeal, picking up the two cats into her grasp as Usopp stared dumbfounded at the sight. The two cats continued to beg for air, wanting desperately to get out of her deadly but affectionate grasp.

 **єи∂ fℓαѕн вα¢к**

"Nami! Usopp!" Luffy ran towards the pair who had just finished spilling oil onto the slope they were on, Nami holding Zoro's swords. They looked back at him and questioned about Zoro—not understanding the cat's mewls but hearing the meows themselves—but Luffy quickly interrupted their questions and pointed to where he had just come from, "We're on the wrong side! Hurry! No time to explain, just follow me!" He said as he transformed back into a human so that they could understand him. Nami threw Luffy's clothes at him but he simply threw them back, "No time to put on clothes, hurry!" He said and started to change again, but surprisingly, he didn't change into his small, cat form but changed into something bigger.

Luffy looked back at the other two, checking to make sure that they were following him, but he noticed that they were simply staring. He cocked his head to the side, oblivious to the fact that they were learning so much more about nekos than what one would normally know. He then turned his head around and started to run at unbelievable speeds, hearing quick footsteps following behind him, meaning that they were definitely following.

●ω●

Zoro followed the pirates and when the new pirate captain had ordered the pirates to charge, he did so as well, running ahead of them so that he reached the top of the slope before they did. When they managed to make it through somewhat through the middle, the miniature tiger thought hard, _'I didn't bring my swords and I can't turn into a human right now seeing how Jango might recognize me…'_ He sighed and turned to look at the charging pirates, but his frown soon turned into a malicious smirk when one of the pirates was dangerously close to the white cat. In an instant, the small cat had transformed into a tiger, his back bristling and his fangs bared.

Doing so caused the closest pirates to fall on their rears and stare at the large cat, unsure of where it had come from. Zoro grinned and pounced on the nearest one, scaring him so that he and others ran back to where they had started, obviously frightened. He sighed, grumbling out curses to his captain for taking too long, _'Can't they just hurry up…?'_

He was successful in keeping the pirates away from going any further but he perked his ears when he heard clanks of metal being moved. Looking towards the boat, he noticed that a few pirates were looking through his and Nami's boat, remembering all the treasure they had there and how it seemed to mean everything in the world to Nami. He growled and looked back, expecting no one to be there but he was surprised when he saw Nami and Usopp running after Luffy in his jaguar form, tired and exhausted from the short run. He smirked and looked at their boats and charged, leaving the trio to deal with the pirates while he dealt with the ones stealing their treasure.

He ran in between the terrified pirates, driving them further back because they thought that the large, white tiger was going to slaughter them, but he ran right past them and rushed towards the ones holding the treasure. He growled loudly at the pirates, making them drop the money on the boat as he tried to push it back into the appropriate place of the ship. Nami noticed this, thinking she had an opportunity of snatching her treasure again and stowing it safely away, but she considered herself weak and she didn't want to give the pirates a chance of snagging her as she ran past them, so she stayed next to Usopp and Luffy.

Looking back, Zoro smirked, baring his fangs—making it appear as if he was growling again at the pirates, hence making them step back further from the white cat. He watched as Luffy bristled his back, giving him the appearance of a much larger, dangerous beast—so much in fact that even Zoro felt a bit intimidated by his captain, amazed at how the always cheerful teen could look so threatening by simply raising his back. Because of this intimidation, the pirates took a few steps away from both him and Zoro.

Zoro ran towards his group and reunited with Luffy, standing side by side. He turned to look at his captain who was also looking at him. In a matter of seconds, Nami looked at them and saw the same procedures and events that happened before they transformed: fur slightly bristling, eyes wide, the tip of the tail quivering and their claws retracting and once again coming out to scratch at the ground. She gasped and threw their respective clothes at each other as she gripped the tiger's swords tight in her grasp, trying to distract her from not looking at the soon-to-be naked males.

The nekos stopped their transformation back to humans and looked at Nami with pure confusion in their eyes and expressions. "Go to the forest and change there! Geez! Have some shame!" Nami said, embarrassment and anger in her voice, even though they hadn't changed yet.

Luffy and Zoro stared at her for a second before they grabbed their clothes with their mouth and continued to the forest, Zoro grumbling as Luffy continued oblivious to what she meant. After some time and miraculously not getting lost—because of the pirates' and their friends' scents—they walked back to the slope and watched as Nami and Usopp threw traps like spikes at the enemies, preventing them from passing.

As soon as they saw the trouble in their friend's eyes, the nekos charged at the enemy pirates and started to cut up and attack all the pirates, reducing the numbers greatly. The hypnotist, Jango, had even gone as far as trying to hypnotize his own men so that they were to believe that they were strong enough to beat them, but using speed and a combination of force as well, Luffy and Zoro easily tumbled them back down the slope—only with claws and teeth. They could smell the frustration in Jango rise rapidly. He then called towards his ship and when he did, two strange looking pirates jumped off the ship and landed gracefully just like a cat.

Though, the nekos slightly wondered as to why all the previous enemies had yet to see their cat features, the present fight not being an exception.

"Buchi, Sham, we couldn't pass through this slope because those guys are blocking our way. Now go and destroy them." Jango ordered them, pointed with his thumb at Luffy and Zoro.

Immediately, the two pirates rapidly started to protest, their voices and bodies trembling in fear, "What? How can we…? Buchi, we can't beat them…" One of the pirates said, his green sideburns slicked into curls as well as his bangs.

"Yeah! Those guys look really strong!" Buchi, a fatter and less flexible looking one rose his hands in a protesting gesture.

Both of the real nekos laid their ears back against their heads as their tails reacted by bristling defensively and offensively. Both Nami and Usopp seemed to not notice but they guessed that they couldn't sense the pure lies in those trembling voices. They arched their backs as their actual hair on their heads bristled dangerously. "Nami, my swords." Zoro said, not tearing his eyes away from the two 'cowards'.

"Why? They're just cowards. You can handle th—"

"My **swords** , Nami!" He hissed at her, surprising the thief. She quirked an eyebrow but sighed, mumbling something about being 'bloodthirsty' but she threw his three katana at the tiger who had caught them with ease. He tied his black bandana around his head, hiding his ears from sight and set one of his swords in his mouth, his other two gripped securely in his hands.

Sham charged at Zoro, waving his arms around, threatening Zoro in a way that would seem he really was a coward. Once the two pirates were close enough, Sham smirked but Zoro grinned more sadistically, making the other pirate lose his smirk and made him lose his guard, "It's obvious you're faking." Zoro said, slashing one of his swords down and cutting cleanly the pirate's chest, earning a scream from him.

"H-How…?" He said, wobbling in his place.

Zoro quirked an eyebrow as he smiled. He waved his tail much more aggressively, making the other notice the appendage that would normally not be there. "Strange. Being somewhat a cat yourself, one would think you're smart enough to know certain abilities of an actual cat." Zoro said, smirking.

"You're a-a neko…!" Sham stated the obvious, the conscious pirates repeating the same phrase.

"And if I am?" He said, his eyes becoming more circular like a tiger. Even though Zoro had asked him, he didn't give the pirate a chance to react or respond as he charged towards him and slashed at the sides of the enemy, charging towards Buchi to do the same but he abruptly stopped and twitched his ears from underneath his bandana. His tail stilled as he continued to stare at Buchi but his concentration wasn't on him. After a few seconds, Zoro jumped in the air, dodging an attack from the enemy that he had supposedly cut down.

Zoro stared at the pirates from above, not understanding why the green-haired pirate wasn't bleeding from his side. The clothing his wore was then neatly cut in half, the abdomen of the pirate being revealed as he landed gracefully a good distance away from the pirates. "Too bad…" Sham said, his voice still slightly unstable by the wound he had on his chest, "I have a very thin waist." Zoro stared at the clean abdomen of the pirate, seeing how one would be very flexible with a spine and body like that.

"Buchi! This guy's strong, come here!" Sham yelled at the fatter pirate who grinned in response. Immediately, the other enemy pirate jumped high in the air despite the way his body was built and attempted to kick Zoro from above, but he easily dodged by blocking with his three katana.

The two enemy pirates charged at Zoro, their hands in the air as the sharp claws from their furry, cat-like gloves scratched at him at quick speeds, but being a neko, they were quite easy to see so he evaded them by using his flexibility and countering with his swords. In the distance, he could hear Nami and Usopp conversing. At first, he didn't care because he had a fight to win but he stilled for a second when he heard just what they were conversing about: Usopp shooting at the pirates to help him. Immediately, he wanted to take the blow so that the pirates wouldn't go after them but luckily, Luffy—who strangely enough, hadn't yet joined the fight—got in the way of Usopp's aim as the sharpshooter shot him, the bullet passing right through him. "Zoro, keep fighting." Luffy said as the bullet sprung out from his stomach, getting lodged into a tree behind his friends. He then looked at the thief and liar and glared at the sniper, "This is Zoro's fight, so don't interfere, please." Luffy said scowling at them, but he didn't want to sound too mean.

' _That's why he's not fighting? At least I can have some fun.'_

The tiger couldn't help but smile as he continued to evade and block the barrage of attacks and scratched from the two brothers. "Tora Gari!" he managed to get an 'X' shaped cut on both of the chests of the Nyaban brothers when they stopped attacking, thinking that they were tired because of all the sweat but there was another scent in there: fear. And it wasn't fear of him. After one last cut and causing the brothers to fall from severe blood loss and wounds, Zoro turned around, wondering why the slope had gotten so silent, and he was quite surprised to see a familiar butler.

Luffy stared at the butler pirate, his eyes narrowed and his tail bristling. The butler—better named 'Kuro', stared at the neko pirate as well, his eyes widening a bit after seeing the furry appendage on the teen's rear and pointed it out, seemingly amused by the fact that the teen was literally a black cat.

After conversing about that, he turned to look at Jango and yelled at him, practically castigating him with words alone. The former captain of the black cat pirates glanced at the fallen and bloodied brothers from his ship, getting angrier than before, "Another neko… who would've thought that pirates wouldn't be able to go against some cats." Even though he said that, the nekos and Nami and Usopp found it quite ironic seeing how both Luffy and Zoro were actually pirates and even though the enemy pirates were nekos themselves, the pirate mocked them by being beaten by what they were based off of.

Kuro then stated a simple rule. Kill the enemies in five minutes and they wouldn't be killed. The pirates immediately thought that they didn't have a chance, seeing the demonstration of strength from before.

Zoro sighed and walked over to the walls of the slope, resting his back on the wall of the gradient as he took in a few breaths to calm the stinging pain from the few cuts he received from the two pirate brothers. Looking at his captain, he saw the same look he gave the swordsman when he ordered him to purr.

For many nekos, purring was something common that was practically heard on a daily basis, but because Zoro wasn't the type to show affection in any way, he found purring to be embarrassing, especially since he appeared brutal.

Zoro gave in and let the low grumbling noise commence in his throat, the tingly but pleasing feeling calming his senses as he felt the cuts on his body patch up again slowly. Glancing at the pirates staring at him with confused and mocking faces, he growled at them making them change their view to the butler, not wanting to get a piece of the swordsman.

Luffy then shifted his gaze behind Kuro, seeing a familiar blonde girl. He and Zoro both perked their ears as they smelled the metallic and dusty scent of gunpowder, not having been present before the Ojou-sama came.

Once she had come to view of everyone, all the pirates had a gleam of hope, desperately wishing that if they killed her right then and now, then they wouldn't have to go to the village and search for her.

During their conversation, they had spoken about Merry and how the butler had planned everything from the start—he was simply gaining the trust of the townspeople and 'befriending' Kaya (the pirates had heard her name when Usopp had seen her). After she had a loud talk with Usopp, she turned to Kuro and pleaded for mercy on the village, telling him that he could have all her money if he left the village, but he simply stated that her death was essential.

Kaya then pulled out a pistol, holding it with both of her hands as it was directed at her ex-butler. The neko's noses twitched a bit by the sudden explosion of gunpowder in their sensory, but they managed to keep themselves from sneezing.

Her pistol dropped on the ground as Kuro continued to bring up the past with her, all the times they had enjoyed the company of each other so that it would all end with her death. Tears brimmed her eyes as she bit her lip to keep noise from coming out, but it was useless since sobs were easily heard by everyone.

Usopp, having heard enough, charged at the pirate with a punch ready to meet a cheek. Kuro looked at the charging boy and without any trouble, he dodged the punch, "Now that I think about it, I still haven't thanked you for that punch you gave me last time. You hit me really hard." The pirate said with a smirk, his eyes narrowing.

Without warning, Luffy smiled as he threw his arm back then punched forward, his knuckled successfully connected to the butler's face, throwing him onto the ground. His arm retracted back into place, "If you hate being hit, I must make sure I hit you a few hundred more times!" All the pirates had been so invested on what their ex-captain had been saying and doing that they were left flustered by how the neko had managed to hit him from where he had been standing. Granted, it wasn't that very far since he was with Usopp and Nami, but it was still quite the distance away for a normal human.

Zoro scooted closer to where the pirate ex-captain was and saw the blood trickle out from the corner of his mouth, his glasses out of place as one of the lenses was broken. He took a look at the scratches inflicted on him from his previous fight but smirked when he noticed the lack of broken tissue and blood. The tiger looked up and decided to get a better view of the upcoming fight, also wanted to find a more comfortable place to rest. He wasn't expected though to see three kids running towards the fallen pirate, each one holding a different tool for different activities. Once he got near the trees of the forest and resting on one, he realized that the three kids attacking the pirate's face were Usopp's pirate crew, each one stopping after they had had enough. The fallen pirate though simply got up and attempted to lift his glasses up with the palm of his hand, but the glass shattered, leaving the frame of the glasses on his bruised face.

All the kids screamed in terror as the pirate walked up to them, but instead of attacking them, he looked at Luffy with an expressionless gaze. "I'm a bit curious. That was quite an odd attack you used. Looks like you possess the power of the devil fruit."

"Yep. I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi. I'm a rubber man." The neko said, cracking his knuckles. All the pirates were left speechless after hearing that their enemy had eaten the legendary devil fruit. Kuro then called out to Jango, ordering him to kill both Kaya and the three kids. Jango nodded and walked towards his kill list, but Zoro quickly appeared in front of Jango and without hesitation, he cut him down with his katana which were unsheathed at even faster speeds.

As Jango fell onto the ground, Zoro felt his foot be grabbed. Before he could even look down, he was brought to the ground, the dirt and rock underneath him cracking a bit as he felt his stomach bounce around painfully. He let out a strangled cry as he looked at the one who had pulled him and was quite surprised to see Buchi, one of the brothers, panting and holding his chest. "Damn it. I already brought you down. Stay like that." Zoro growled, not wanting to have to deal with the pirate again.

Usopp had told his pirate group to take Kaya to another place that was safe. Zoro quickly set his eye on Jango again as he brought out two pendulums which now seemed to be like blades since he spun them incredibly fast, but he didn't need to attack him since the sniper had shot him on the back, causing him to fall on the floor but Kuro ordered him to continue after the running group—having already disappeared into the forest.

The sniper looked towards the forest, not being able to see Kaya nor the enemy, so he changed his gaze back to the two nekos who, during the whole fight, were perfectly fine—Zoro only having some thin scars on his chest that weren't even causing him any stinging pain anymore. "Usopp, go. We can handle these guys." Luffy said to the sniper, who nodded and ran after his friends and planning to attack the enemy.

Zoro slashed at the fat pirate after he had attempted to go after Usopp. The tiger brought him to the ground and had trapped the pirate's head in between his swords so that he wouldn't be able to move. Zoro smirked, his human teeth unconsciously becoming sharper as his tail waved excitedly. "You've messed around enough. I won't kill you, if you just lie down quietly." Buchi seemed to understand the message for a second but he smacked Zoro on the side, although not too strong, it still managed to get the tiger off of him.

"I thought I already warned you. Don't get in the way." Zoro said, his eyes showing clear irritation as the bleeding neko pirate panted and gasped for air, his eyes showing just as much anger as Zoro's irritation. The real neko sighed and glared at the fake cat. He brought up his katana in his hands and at incredible speeds, he slashed at the chest of the fat pirate again, this time checking to make sure he really was down.

After making sure the enemy was unconscious, he looked at his pirate captain and walked towards him, his bloodthirsty eyes and tiger-like aura completely gone, relieving the jaguar. "Hey, Luffy. I should go check how Usopp is doing. You fine with that?"

Luffy nodded, a wide smile on his face. "Of course."

As Zoro walked past the black cat ex-captain, said captain scraped his sword/claws against each other, the loud screeching noise of the metal stunning the nekos for a second. "Who said you could get through me?" He asked, not even looking at the tiger who was still distracted from the loud and painful noise—having been more effective on him since he was closer.

As he was about to attack the swordsman, Luffy grinned even wider and positioned his arm for a rubber attack, specifically pistol. "I did!" His punch was dodged by the pirate captain and crashed onto the tree behind them. He launched another punch but the black cat pirate had suddenly disappeared, confusing the neko. He stilled for a second but after hearing a slight interruption of the wind behind him, he ducked and dodged the sharp attack from the pirate, mildly surprised at how fast the other could move. Before the neko could counter, the enemy disappeared again and appeared in front of him, standing there.

"Before we fight, I want to ask you one question. You're a stranger here, why are you getting involved with this village?" Kuro asked, raising his voice to cause discomfort for the neko.

Luffy hummed a bit before a wide smile appeared on his face, "I have a friend in this village that I don't want to see dead." He said, no sign of hesitation nor lies in his words.

●ω●

Zoro sniffed the air, finding all five scents going deeper into the forest. He looked around his location as he started to jog, seeing fallen trees with cuts that seemed to have been made by something obviously sharp and deadly; also being able to go long distances. He grunted as he looked ahead of himself, annoyed at what was going through his mind at that moment. _'If he were a normal human who couldn't smell nobody's scent, he would already be as lost as Alice in Wonderland.'_

●ω●

"What a simple reason. Are you really okay with it? After all, it'll be your reason for dying." Kuro said smugly, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"That's okay! I'm not gonna die anyway!" Luffy said, holding his arm so that he could prepare another punch as Kuro spread his arms and fingers apart, ten blades pointing at different directions.

The neko grabbed the arms of the charging pirate, preparing to do a spear, but the enemy had simply spun his arms so that Luffy fell onto the ground. Luffy continued various more attacks, but each one was either dodged or used against him, like his last attack where he had attempted to punch the enemy with a casual pistol but Kuro had landed on top of his arm, charging towards him and kicking him the face where he was the first to get knocked down further down the slope.

All the pirates cheered on for their captain, cheers of 'Go! Captain Kuro!' or 'Kill him! Captain Kuro!' but for some odd reason, the ex-captain yelled at them, getting Luffy's attention. "You still don't understand? The real purpose of this plan is to eliminate the name 'Captain Kuro' forever! I'm sick and tired of making plans for you useless morons. As my name becomes more and more notorious, the government's marines and professional bounty hunters kept coming after me, which really started to annoy me. That's why, on that day, three years ago, I decided to kill myself."

Kuro's history was quite interesting, but he still hated the part where he had used one of his crewmates to be executed in his place, but what had really gotten the neko's attention was the fact that the black cat ex-pirate captain had broken the jaw of a marine. His memory buzzed for a moment, a blurry image came to his mind of a marine but he shook his head, realizing he didn't have the time to think about unnecessary things.

"What happened that day has been essential for today's plan to be successful. My plan can only be completed when I have obtained wealth and peace. Do you understand now kid? I've spent three years doing this plan, it cannot fail!" Kuro charged at the neko with his 'claws' extended, ready to claw.

Luffy's ears perked high as his tail thumped the ground repeatedly. Sometimes, it was as if his cat appendages knew more than him. He grabbed a large rock chunk from the impact before and held it in front of him, his tail coiling as much as it could to help support the weight as well. The blades penetrated the rock as Kuro complemented his strength, Luffy replying with a smile as he forced the rock to his left, snapping the metal, his playful grin turning into a sly smirk. He then used the same trick but instead to his sides, he forced it down on the enemy's head, bringing him down onto the cracked ground, "My dreams are far greater than your plans!"

The pirate lifted himself off the ground, fresh blood dripping from the sides of his face as an annoyed and darkened expression overtook his face—Luffy on the other hand simply grinned, happy that he finally got a hit at the other man.

Luffy took a few steps back to get some space to think. From the new cuts and wounds on him, he knew that the pirate he was up against was definitely no phony. He had the flexibility of a cat, hence the name of his previous pirate group and he also had the skill, which Luffy knew that he needed a way to counter. He could fight on equal terms on speed: his legs and eyes allowed him to keep up with his enemy as his ears and smell also played a role in there as well. Since they were matched with speed, what he needed was strength, that he already had dominated control over.

The ex-captain yelled at his ex-crewmates about them cheering at him, claiming he was going to kill them all. There was only anger and annoyance in his voice and smell.

Luffy honestly felt bad for the crewmembers. It made him glad that he had nakama who he truly loved and cared for and hopefully, vice-versa.

●ω●

Zoro's ears perked as he heard a snapping sound and a strangled call. He looked around him and changed his trail from scent to hearing, remembering the direction of the voice. It sounded a lot like choking and it was high-pitched as well, meaning that it could've been one of the kids. He continued to follow the strangled cries at high speeds, not wanting to waste time.

After only a few seconds, he rushed past a bush and saw the group there—not looking in the best of conditions. Kaya was behind a tree with one of the boys as another kid was on the tree, but he noticed the multiple cuts on Usopp and the owner of the strangled and raspy cries.

The hypnotist threw the boy towards a tree, causing the boy to go unconscious. Immediately, he felt his green hair bristle all over his body. He charged towards the hypnotist before anyone else could and bit down on the arm of the enemy, getting a surprised yelp from him as he tried to shake off the swordsman, but Zoro raised the arm in between his mouth a bit higher and clamped harder, once again blood filling into his mouth. He bit down hard once more and let the arm drop unceremoniously, limp on the owner.

He felt his fangs grow larger. He disliked it when he couldn't control his neko instincts. He was pretty sure every neko did.

One should never mess with the cub of a partner.

It could possibly end in death.

●ω●

The pirates tried to create excuses to stop their ex-captain from killing them, Luffy listening to each one of their excuses as he felt his anger pool inside his stomach. "You don't have to worry about the plan. As long as your corpses are here, I can place all the blame on you." All the pirates were shocked, "I never intended to let any of you leave the village alive. It would be to my disadvantage to let anyone who knows about my plans live."

"You mean, you planned… from the very beginning… to kill all of us?!" The pirates chorused, horrified. The onion smell and yellow gas very apparent for the neko.

"Yes, ever since three years ago, when I was still Captain Kuro! All of this was a part of my plan." He responded, a smirk and an evil glint in his eye.

"You guys are dumb." Luffy looked back at the lower pirates and back at the ex-captain. "What a bunch of loser pirates." When he said loser, he mainly directed it to the original captain, his eyes somewhat closed from the onion smell.

"Losers?" The ex-captain smirked, "a pirate crew is just a random gathering of outlaws." Luffy thought about Zoro and his current alliance with Nami. He easily disagreed. "What could these fools do without my plan? You should continue to quietly follow my plans!" his voice was more unstable now.

"In a pirate fleet, the crewmembers are just pawns for the captain to use as he wishes. That means, your life and death are in my hands." How much Luffy was disagreeing with him right now, "Even if there's a wall right ahead, you'd still have to follow my orders and charge at it, and sacrifice yourselves for my plan!" The neko could come up with a billion reasons to disagree with him, "That's the way of a pirate! A wandering little brat like you would never understand!" Oh, he understood the life of a pirate. He just simply didn't agree with _his_ idea.

Kuro appeared behind Luffy, ready to slash at him, but the neko grinned and brought his arm back, punching Kuro's cheek with enough strength to fling him onto the rocky wall. With his cat senses, for him, it was like watching a snail move. He simply had to configure the right amount of sound, smell and sight to see and feel what he needed to find.

The pirate grinned and started to sway back and forth, causing his crewmates to engulf themselves in a disgusting onion smell. Looking back, Luffy saw how all the pirates had tear stained faces, their mouths wide as they tried to convince their pirate captain not to use _that_ technique.

The neko looked back at the swaying butler and wondered why they were scared when all that he was doing was waving his body, his arms limp as his head was lowered. "Shakushi!"

He disappeared.

This time, Luffy's eyes widened.

 _He couldn't track him._

The neko turned his head rapidly, trying to track the invisible pirate to no avail. Suddenly, he heard a scream behind him.

Turning around, he saw one of the pirates with five deep cuts on his chest, causing him to collapse onto the floor. "What the…?"

Someone else screamed.

"Another one?!" Luffy said, not understanding what was happening. He then heard a large scraping noise and looked to where he had heard it, seeing another five gashes on the wall of the slope.

They kept on screaming. Blood filled the nekos nostrils as he watched many pirates fall onto the ground, the ones still conscious thrashing about until even they fainted painfully. He was still clueless until he heard more pirates crying out, trying desperately to call out to their ex-captain. "Captain Kuro! Please stop it!"

"It's no use! When he's using his 'silent step' attack, he can't discern one person from another!" Luffy's ears perked high as he realized where this was going. "He's so fast that even he doesn't know what he's attacking! He won't stop 'till he's tired!" Luffy was going to crush that man. "Try to avoid it or hide if you can!"

Luffy stood high as his eyes shadowed. He watched as more pirates continued to get cut one by one at remarkable speeds. He felt a life threatening wound get inflicted on him but he didn't flinch once. He surveyed the fallen bodies and corpses littered on the ground, his eyes wide with mixed emotions. Terror, anger, confusion and a feeling of betrayal. The captain was doing this to his crewmembers. He was supposed to protect them and make sure that each one was safe to see through tomorrow. The neko thought that he was just bluffing when he had warned everyone and specifically telling _him_ , but as he watched, he felt as if he had betrayed them, even though they were going to destroy and kill everyone else, he felt an impossibly deeper hatred to see that the pirate was murdering what was supposed to be a family. _His_ family.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR CREWMEMBERS ARE!?" Luffy screamed out, ignoring the pain inflicted on him moments prior. He continued to watch as more and more pirates continued to fall, large quantities of blood pooled around each body. The massacre continued without hesitation. "COME OUT YOU EVIL BUTLER!" he screamed out once more, configuring his senses once more so that he could listen to each breath and footstep.

Configuring to such a point was a difficult task, seeing how the muscles in his ears needed to be in appropriate spots, flexing at the right movements and his concentration at its peak as well, but it was possible. Luckily, from his training when he was little with his brothers and the pirate, he managed to perfect his ear muscles, but he did find some difficulty with his eyes.

His eyes needed to be either squinting or wide to collect the right amount of light. At his current state, he could barely see the shadow of Kuro and a blur, but being able to see perfectly had always been a hard task. Not only did he need his eyelids to work, but his pupils as well. They either needed to be dilated or constricted to collect the perfect amount of light but controlling eye muscles isn't something too common in general. He could dilate and constrict his pupils to some extent but he couldn't do it too well, which made him wonder how well Zoro could control his neko abilities.

Luffy stood for a second before his ears picked up a quick change in the wind, charging right at him. And it was coming in quickly. His eyes widened a second before the two figures could crash onto each other and caught a quick blur with his configured eyes. He brought his arm out—getting five new cuts on his arm—and grabbed what was in front of him, flinging the body to the ground. Looking at the body, Luffy grinned, "Gotcha."

"You bastard. You should've just quietly let me cut you to pieces." Kuro grinned, "Look! It's because of you, my beloved crew is half dead and in great pain!" Luffy looked at the fallen pirates, many squirming while some actually started to convulse or hyperventilate, pleading for the pain to stop. "You have something to say?" The ex-pirate asked.

"Yep." Luffy looked back at the butler. "I swear, I will never…" He cracked his knuckles, an inaudible rumbling in the back of his throat, "Ever be a pirate like you!"

"Oh, you won't. Of course, you can't even be a pirate, because you will die here." Kuro said, dipping his head and letting his arms limp to his sides, his body swaying.

Luffy immediately charged towards the swaying pirate and latched onto him. His arms were secured on the butlers' in an impossible (and painful looking) way, his legs crossed behind the butlers back. "Try and use your silent step now." Luffy said, grinning.

●ω●

Zoro sheathed his blades back into their respective sheaths, sighing at the previous events. What he had done wasn't one of his proudest moments, seeing how his neko taste had taken over, yearning for more of that metallic taste.

 **Fℓαѕн вα¢к**

He wanted to taste the crimson liquid again, the latest time was when he had bit down on that pirate's foot, but a foot wasn't as good as actual muscle, like and arm or the neck.

The hypnotist cursed various insults at the swordsman, but they were blocked out by his sudden need of blood. He wanted more, the metallic taste was necessary on his taste buds. It was what made him what he was. It was what made people feel terrorized with him simply being in their presence. But, even with these desires, he looked at the sky, taking deep breaths as he smelled the fear in all the children and girl.

But, he couldn't stop the lust.

The _tiger_ wanted to taste more. Just a bit more. A little drop more and he would be happy.

But he didn't want to give in.

Not yet.

He bit his bottom lip in an attempt to prevent him from licking his lips again, constantly searching for more blood although he had licked it all up before. "Damn this…" he murmured under his breath, sounding raspy form just how low he had said it. He took out one of his swords, causing the hypnotist to take a few steps back, the pendulum blades ready in his hands. With his sword, he plunged it deep into his arm, making sure he didn't cut any life threatening veins. He took out his sword again and sucked on his wound, cleaning the fresh cut with his bristled tongue, surprising everyone.

Finally, he felt at peace again, even though he had to quench his lust for blood with his own.

He let his arm fall besides him as more blood continued to spill, a good amount finding its way onto his clothes and the grassy floor. "Sorry about that." The tiger said to the hypnotist, who looked completely shocked and horrified. "Couldn't control it for a minute there. My thirst should be steady now."

That last statement caused everyone to freeze.

The tiger took the chance to take out his other two katana, placing one in his mouth as he held the other two in his hands, the hand he stabbed uncomfortable with holding a heavy piece. He sighed and took a deep breath, his eyelids resting lazily. He pointed the sword at the hypnotist and grumbled softly, the pain in his arm starting to sting more than it actually hurting. He looked at Usopp who was taking out his sling shot, but seemed to be having complications with his aim since he was still a good distance away (probably because he couldn't track down Kaya and the others immediately like the neko could. Because of that, he arrived a little before Zoro did).

The tiger grinned.

 _Guess I don't need to finish this guy off then._ The tiger thought, sheathing both of his swords in his hands and only using his white blade—Wado Ichimonji—with his right hand. He then charged towards Usopp, scaring the other teenager and everyone else, probably because they thought he was going to slaughter the teen, but instead, he raised his sword and cut the many branches in front of Usopp, allowing the teen to get a better aim.

At first, he could smell the confusion in Usopp but it turned into gratitude. Before long, the sniper aimed his slingshot at Jango, the ammo flying towards the hypnotist and getting a perfect shot.

The pirate fell.

 **єи∂ Fℓαѕн вα¢к**

He turned to look at the four conscious people, a blank expression on his face before he realized why they were wary of him, "About that, sorry about what you guys had to see earlier. It's instinct." He turned to look at Kaya who stared at him with confused eyes. "Oh right. You still don't know…" He said and perked his ears a bit higher and let his tail swing left and right, earning a gasp from her.

"A neko…?" She asked, clearly amazed. The tiger was expecting the confused reaction, but he wasn't really expecting to hear her giggle. "That's amazing!" Her smile dimmed a bit, "But isn't it troublesome to walk around like that?"

"You have no idea." Zoro responded to her, a little curious as to how she brushed away the fact that he had almost mutilated the arm of the enemy. "Should we go back now?" He asked everyone, all four of them nodding.

●ω●

Luffy brought his head back and listened to the cheers of the other pirates, annoyed by their cheering. He head butted the other pirates', causing a bit of blood to explode from Kuro's mouth. After some more cheering, he stretched his neck far enough so that he was looking straight at the pirates—terrifying them by the scary appearance—and yelled at them, not wanting to be cheered on. He then lifted his head up so that he was facing the trapped pirate from far away and gritted his teeth, letting his neck retract. Not even a second later, his forehead met with the captured pirate, causing him to fall onto the floor with blood decorating his face.

Kuro was slammed onto the ground, causing more blood to escape his systems. "He really beat him! Who the hell are you?!" The pirates chorused, terrified by the new results of their ex-captain's face.

"Monkey D. Luffy! There's no way I'd lose to a pirate who gives up his name and runs from the sea. The only time a pirate should give up his name is when he dies!" Luffy said, his frown slowly turning into a frown as the pirates shared comments about never hearing his name. "You better try to remember my name. I'm the one who's going to become the Pirate King!" The neko looked at the fallen enemy and growled before picking him up and flinging him towards the lower pirates. "Take him back and don't ever come back! You better not tell anyone that my swordsman and I are nekos or else you won't be able to see tomorrow!" He growled at them, taking the chance to tell them what he really had on his mind.

He huffed out a deep breath.

His vision grew a bit blurry before he couldn't see at all.

He started to fall but he felt sturdy arms catch him. By the scent of gold and tangerines, he knew who had caught him. "You fought hard." She laid him down on the ground so that he could rest properly, "I guess even you can't stand up after being cut so many times. Why did you get so mad earlier?"

Luffy wondered for a moment, thinking about the event. "I don't like them. They're wrong."

"What are you talking about? It's obviously because they're pirates." Nami murmured, her voice although seeming harsh.

"I want meat." Luffy quickly changed the subject, stating the thing he wanted the most at that moment.

●ω●

"Thank you! It's all thanks to you!" Usopp said, thanking the people who had helped him protect his village from harm. "If it weren't for you guys, the village couldn't have been protected.

"What are you saying?" Zoro asked, smirking as he held tightly onto his katana and purring by captain's orders. "If you hadn't done anything, I wouldn't have either."

"Same here." Luffy said, not having been moved from his position, he too purring by first mates' argument.

"That doesn't matter. I was able to get the treasure." Nami said, her head bobbing from side to side as she hummed happily.

"In the light of this, there's a decision I've made." Usopp said, his voice low but full of excitement.

●ω●

Luffy chomped onto the fish bones left over on his plate, a few poking his gums and the walls of his mouth, causing a few comical tears to spill from his eyes. After taking out the bad fish bones from his mouth, he would attempt once again to eat them professionally like his swordsman, who was staring at him with a thoughtful but somewhat annoyed expression. "Why is your throat unable to handle fish bones, Luffy?" The tiger asked, his arms crossed as his body slumped low on his cushion seat.

"I would always eat big, land animals when I was little…" Luffy said, staring at him as he attempted once again to handle a larger fish bone. "But, when we went hunting in the rivers, we only ate the big animals like crocodiles."

"We?" Zoro asked him, one of his eyebrows quirked.

But Luffy ignored him and looked at Nami's fish, which she held up and showed him how a normal human ate fish, surprising both nekos. "You waste all the good parts!" Luffy said, his eyes widening.

"Yeah…! Have you ever even tried the eyes?" Zoro asked, his arms uncrossing for a second before he crossed them again.

"Ew… who would eat the eyes of a fish?" Nami asked, disgusted.

"It's delicious!" Both nekos exclaimed, flinging their bodies over the table as the palm of their hands crashed onto the tabletop.

Both nekos relaxed and slumped back in their seats. "Well, we got our meal. We should get going." Zoro said, a small smile crawling onto his lips. Luffy agreed, chomping on another bone.

The small restaurants' door opened and Kaya entered the wooden building, a smile gracing her lips. She walked to the pirates table with cupped hands as Nami asked her about her health, trying to make sure she really was taking care of herself. "I've been sick like this for a year. Ever since I lost my parents that day, Usopp-san encouraged me. That's why I can't be weak now. Anyway, I heard that you guys needed a ship." She finished, her arms wide as if she wanted to hug them (especially the nekos).

"A ship!? You're gonna give us one?" Luffy asked, his face beaming happiness.

●ω●

The pirates stared at the caravel, amazed by such a creative design and grateful for earning such an amazing boat. The three awed at the ship, clearly wanting to ride it immediately. Another butler, Merry, introduced them the boat and thanked them for protecting both Kaya and Usopp, as well as the village. He tried to explain the steering systems to Luffy but he turned to explaining to Nami since the neko clearly didn't understand.

"I had everything you need for a voyage loaded onto the ship." Kaya said, pleased.

"Thanks for causing as this trouble!" Luffy said, his tail waving happily.

The nekos could still tell that the butler was still having a bit of trouble trying to keep calm at the sight of _two_ nekos, but he managed not to say anything about it after Kaya had explained to him that nekos really did exist, but they were to be kept a secret just like the event with Kuro.

"It's 'thanks for **going through** all this trouble…" Zoro said, sighing as his black and white ears perked high, Luffy hearing the sound as well.

Before they could properly comprehend what the sound was, the sound grew louder and louder, sounding more like a cry and yelling rather than what it first sounded like—a low rumbling sound almost. The nekos looked at the empty slope, not seeing anything and confusing the non-nekos. Before long, a small figure appeared, rapidly going down the slope that the pirates fought on. "Stop me please!" The cry yelled out, the nekos from afar identifying it as Usopp.

"What's he doing?" Luffy asked Zoro.

"I think we should stop him." The tiger turned to look at Luffy, but changed his gaze back at Usopp who was still rolling down the slope, "If he keeps on going like that, he'll hit the ship." Zoro said, completely unconcerned for the health of their friend and more concerned for their new caravel. It did make sense though. They were given a new ship and they weren't going to wreck it right off the bat.

Both nekos raised their legs as their tails brushed against each other, almost coiling into each other as if they were syncing their movements for that moment and onwards. Soon enough, their feet made impact with Usopp's face, paining him but successfully stopping him from rolling any more.

●ω●

"So, you are going to the sea, Usopp-san?" Kaya asked, a distinctive smell of sadness in her voice and smell. Usopp confirmed and asked her not to stop him. "I won't. I figured that you might do this. It makes me really said though."

"Next time I come to this village, I'll tell you adventures and stories that are more unbelievable than lies." The long-nosed kid told the girl. "Well, safe voyage guys! Hope to see you again somewhere!" He said to the two nekos visible on the deck of the ship from his view, but the jaguar cocked his head and asked why, confusing the teenager. "Why? Sheesh, you're such a cold hearted man… we're both going to be pirates now, so we might meet up again on the seas." Usopp said, a look of hurt in his eyes.

Zoro sighed at the cluelessness of the sniper and pointed at the deck as he frowned. "What are you talking about? Hurry up and get onboard!" The tiger said, his voice exasperated.

"What?" Usopp said, his voice quieter.

"You're already our companion, aren't you…?" Luffy asked, his head rested on his forehands which rested on the railing closest to Usopp.

It took a moment for the sniper to take in this information but when he did, he jumped high in the air and punched the sky, pleading to be captain but Luffy loudly refused, ready to pounce at his new crewmember. "No way! I'm the captain!"

●ω●

"CHEERS!"

Beer glasses clinked into each other, spilling sake into the air and onto the wooden floor. "To a new ship and a new crewmember!" Luffy's voice rang through the new caravel, his hat falling off his head, revealing his ears for the whole world to see. Zoro also had his bandana removed, his white and black ears set on his green, mossy hair contrasting perfectly against each other. The nekos tails swung happily, coiling once again. Neither neko knew what the sudden coiling was but it seemed to connect them in a way that didn't connect them before, so for that, the large cats were grateful.

●ω●

Luffy finished drawing the tip of the triangle just above the straw hat—which sadly enough, was the most realistic part of the drawing—and held the black cloth high, showing his artwork to the rest of his crew. "Alright! Our pirate flag is done!" He said, his tail swinging in enthusiasm. "I put a lot of thought into making our symbol!"

The drawing was _supposed_ to be simple, seeing how it only needed to be a skull mark wearing a straw hat with cat ears, but it turned out to look more like Da Vinci's artwork. Each of the three crewmembers commented on the drawing, Usopp calling it plain hideous, Nami calling it abstract art and Zoro complimenting it on the sense of terror, but he and Nami had a word to him about the cat ears. "It's a good touch, but it might reveal too much." Nami said, Zoro agreeing. Luffy saw Zoro's nod and gaining the approval of his first crewmember from their navigator, Luffy had no choice but to remove the ears.

After redoing it, it turned out just a tad bit better, not by much, but it didn't have its cat ears anymore. Usopp had enough of the terrible attempts at drawing and decided to redo their symbol completely, making it look like him instead of the actual captain, earning too punches from the captain and the swordsman—Luffy was angry because he was supposed to be captain but Zoro didn't want to look like he joined a coward.

After a few minutes of redoing the symbol _again_ , Usopp finished the skull and allowed everyone to take in the drawing, simply amazed by the ending results.

"It doesn't look even remotely like the other one." Zoro said, pointing to both black flags in an excited tone, for once feeling proud of sitting on the deck of a pirate.

"That's great! Draw one on the sail too later!" Luffy said, his eyes latched on the drawing. The sniper then bragged on about how he had honed his artistic skills by drawing on the walls of the houses of the villagers. After bragging, he followed Luffy's order and drew the same mark of the black flag onto the white sails, turning out amazing in the end, everyone minus Luffy pitching in to help.

After resting, both of the neko's ears perked high as they smelled people, but people who were near them but at the same time, a good distance away. Once the tiger smelled the two different odors, he scrambled onto his feet and ran towards Luffy, surprising everyone. "Hmm? Zoro, what's wrong?" Luffy asked the swordsman.

"I recognize those smells." Zoro said, his head searching frantically for the exact pinpoint of the people. "They smell like…" He stopped shaking his head and stared at the rock, sniffing the air as his tail sought attention, which Luffy instinctively gave with his own. "Hey Luffy, think we can go over to that rock?" he asked his captain.

"Eh…? But I really wanted to test out the cannon on it." Luffy said, pouting, "And what about our ears and tails?"

"Nah, don't worry 'bout that." Zoro said, Nami coming over and understanding their conversation. She walked back to the steering room and changed the direction of the ship, heading straight for the rock.

Once near, everyone looked over the side of the boat where nearest to the rock but saw absolutely nothing. "Are you sure there are people here?" The navigator asked the nekos, gaining a strong nod from both of them. They scanned the area again and Zoro sighed before jumping over the railing and landing on the rock.

"Hey, Zoro, where ya' going?" Usopp asked, not seeing any live life near them other than themselves.

"Zoro?"

The tiger smirked and sniffed the air softly, confirming the scent of known people. "Hey guys." He said back. A person with jet-black hair and sunglasses walked out from the shadows of the rock with a blade in his hand—probably preparing to attack someone if they were to get too close. "I knew I recognized your smells." Zoro said, smiling.

The man dropped his sword and smiled widely, pure happiness contaminating the air. "ZORO!" he said, practically glomping the swordsman.

"You two know each other?" The three other pirates asked the tiger, whose tail swung from side to side.

"Yeah, but," He turned to look at his friend, "Where's Yosaku, Johnny?" he asked, not seeing his friend come around yet. Immediately the smile on Johnny's face disappeared as a frown replaced it.

"H-He's… Yosaku is…" He began to stutter. "He's sick!"

"Sick?" Zoro asked, Johnny leading the tiger to where he and Yosaku were moments before. The two males picked up their sick friend as Zoro lead him back onto Merry.

As Johnny climbed onto the boat, his eyes landed on the short pirate captain and stared at the tail behind Luffy. "You're a neko too…?!" He said, surprised at seeing another neko in his lifetime. He mumbled something about it just being life playing tricks with him but after rubbing his eyes and shaking his head violently, he glanced at Luffy again and saw the same black appendage swinging back and forth behind Luffy, who was now grinning.

"I get it! You must be Zoro's friend if you already know him!" he then smiled wider. "And you said 'too'. I'm right, right?"

Zoro then told Luffy about his history with Johnny and Yosaku and how they hunted down fugitives together. After Zoro finished explaining, Johnny filled everyone in on how Yosaku had gotten sick and his various episodes of passing out and other unhealthy events like losing his teeth and old wounds reopening, concerning everyone, but Nami kept a stern face.

"God, how thick could you get?" She said in a powerful voice, scaring the nekos by the volume and making Johnny feel as if she was mocking his almost dead friend. "Luffy! Usopp! There're some limes in the kitchen. Go squeeze the juice out and bring it here ASAP!" She ordered them.

"R-Roger!" The two chorused as they ran to the kitchen.

They came back with a jug of freshly squeezed limes as Luffy made Yosaku chug the whole thing down as the sniper held his head up while Nami explained mainly to Johnny that he was affected with scurvy and commenced to tell them the history of it.

Almost magically, the unconscious bounty hunter sprung to life and started to dance with his partner, causing the temporary doctor to scream out in frustration at how idiotic everyone was on the ship. The two rested their heads on their fists as said fists were supported by their forearms which hugged their bodies, introducing themselves properly since they didn't get the chance to do so.

"Well, color me surprised! I never would've expected the infamous pirate hunter Zoro to have become a pirate himself!" Johnny exclaimed after Yosaku had thanked everyone, only to pass out not a second later.

"Just shut up and get some rest already!" Zoro ordered them, not wanting to hear more of their rambles.

"Let this be a lesson to the rest of you." Nami told the three pirates after Johnny and Yosaku left to rest.

"These are the kind of dangers we'll be facing on long voyages." The tiger said, gesturing what he meant as his other hand slipped into his pocket.

"He would've died for sure had he not come across us." The sniper said, but he changed to the subject to something related to the former incident. "We definitely need someone to think about our diet to see to it that we stay healthy. What we need is a 'chef of the sea'." He finished, everyone agreeing to recruit a chef.

Once they had decided, Johnny woke up from his small rest and walked over to the small but growing pirate crew, advice ready to be told. "If you're looking for a cook, I know just the place. Of course, getting one to join you is another matter altogether. The place to find one is Baratie, a restaurant of the seas."

Everyone repeated the last part, excited about seeing a restaurant floating on the waves of the ocean. The nekos on the other hand seemed more curious than excited, seeing how they _were_ cats and they loved to find out what piqued their interest—although Zoro didn't really show his curiosity, in fact, he changed his expression to something that one would easily call him bored. "That's right. You should be able to reach it from here in two to three days, but that place is close to the Grand Line so you gotta be careful. Lotta dangerous guys around those parts." Johnny continued to explain, but he turned to Zoro and grinned, "Even that 'Hawk-eyed' man you've been looking for has been sighted there once before." Johnny walked past Zoro and spoke with the three other pirates, filling them in on the information that wanted to hear, but Zoro stood there, not sure if he should look surprised, excited, nervous or even shocked, so it turned out to be a mix of them all, his mouth contorted into a small grin as he eyes narrowed dangerously as he sweat profusely.

The tiger's tail swayed just as dangerous looking as his hungry eyes. He took in many deep breaths, wanting to plan out everything so that he could have a sure win against the man he wanted to beat ever since he was just a kid—a kid practicing in a dojo to become the best, to complete the vow that only he could finish.

 **Excuse me, and pardon, but this is still a combination.**

 **(One) piece out!**


	5. Chapter 5: Beasts

Chapter 5: Beasts

 **Yeah…**

Merry sailed closer to the floating restaurant, the ones boarding the small caravel awing at the sight of a floating restaurant. The nekos flicked their tails, once again finding themselves tied in each other's again, but they certainly didn't mind, but they presumed that since they were entering a building where there were definitely going to be many pairs of eyes, the appendages would have to be tucked away for now, which saddened Luffy a bit since he really did enjoy the warm feeling Zoro's tail gave—something that his own tail didn't give since he wasn't built for the cold.

The restaurant itself had a unique and strange design, the 'figurehead' was placed lower than the actual location of a normal figurehead and said figurehead was the head of a white fish with orange lips, its mouth agape as if it was horrified at its body. The rest of the restaurant was—instead of funny or humorous—painted green with red doors and red roofs, the sails furled so that the ship wouldn't catch any winds.

Everybody continued to admire the restaurant, Zoro really being the only one that wasn't gawking at it like everyone else. Because of the lack of attention for the restaurant, Zoro's ears perked from underneath his bandana, listening professionally to the distortion in the winds and water. He quickly jumped back in his spot and saw a small dot gradually grow larger and larger by the second. The neko strained his black eyes as far as he could and managed to make out the blue and green color of the ship, 'marines' painted on the main sails of the ship.

"Guys, stop admiring the restaurant and prepare yourselves." He said, looking back at everyone else who turned their heads to see what he was talking about, but he jumped in surprise when he saw Luffy next to him, his eyes perplexed as to why the marines where there.

"Wait, they're not gonna attack us, are they?" The pirate captain asked suddenly, looking at his swordsman. "They better not. This ship is new!" he growled.

The ship drew closer and closer by the second, causing all the people currently on Merry to stare at the marine ship with wary eyes, threatening to do some damage if the marines caused them and the pirate's new ship any trouble—well, at least Luffy and Zoro did.

Once the marine ship was close enough, the lieutenant of the ship walked onto the deck and stared at the pirates in front of him, eyeing every single one of them before calling out for the captain to introduce himself, which Luffy proudly did, but he left out his dream in his introduction. The lieutenant himself had pink hair which neatly combed back, a white pinstripe suit and a deep scar on his right cheek, but Luffy couldn't help but eye the non-deadly looking bolts on his knuckles (at least to Luffy), find them quite eye-catching.

Because Yosaku and Johnny had attempted to get back at the lieutenant because he had insulted them, they ended up being beaten themselves, blood decorating their chins and noses, but luckily, that was all the damage they had received, or so they thought.

As everyone else had changed to different topics, the nekos continued to stare warily at the marine ship, the smell of gunpowder growing stronger the longer they stood there. "Hey Luffy, wanna check what those guys are doing?" Zoro suggested the idea to his captain, who stared at him with serious but excited eyes, nodding eagerly.

"Yeah!" He said, thinking it was more of an adventure than something to be secretive about. "Hey guys! We'll be right back!" Luffy said, looking at his crewmates, his eyes landing on Nami, smelling the mix of emotions in her as she held a sheet of paper in her hands next to Johnny, her hands and body trembling as sweat covered every visible spot. Luffy looked at Zoro to see if he had noticed it as well and sure enough, Zoro was staring at her as well, a look of slight concern for her. "C'mon." Luffy told him, not so enthusiastic as before.

They hopped aboard the enemy ship, their eyes landing on the lieutenant who was currently telling one of the marines to prepare a cannon. The nekos knew _exactly_ what that meant. Luffy stared at them with narrowed eyes, but Zoro's were far more deadly. They walked up to the cannon, going right in front of the sight of the marines, and with as much strength they could muster in a single second, they dumped the weapon in the water, deeming it useless. "Jerks." Luffy said before tugging the arm of his swordsman. "Trying to attack us like that even though we did nothing." Luffy said, forgetting about what Johnny and Yosaku had attempted a minute before.

As they walked back to their ship, they could hear the insults being flung at them after a minute of silence on the marine ship, but the nekos completely ignored them as they hopped back onto Merry, greeted by the shocked expressions of their crewmates and the bounty hunters. "What? You seriously couldn't tell that they were going to try to sink this ship?" Zoro asked them, but like with the first minute after throwing the cannon, they received silence.

●ω●

Johnny and Yosaku stayed behind on the ship, making sure to guard it well as the actual owners of said ship entered the restaurant to get a taste of the food that was so famous on the seas.

Luffy ran into the restaurant, screaming out meat and tugging at the arm of the nearest waiter which happened to be a tall, blonde man who was smoking, causing Luffy to cough a bit from inhaling the smoke a bit too much so he backed away just an inch but didn't let go of the waiter. "Hey, blonde guy! Gimme' meat and lots of it!" He said, his voice loud, startling most of the obviously more well-mannered customers.

Looking at the waiters face, he saw an irritated expression clear on his face, but his mouth twitched a bit and a vague smile made was to his lips. "Meat lover, huh." He said, wanting to sound irritated and annoyed but it came out almost relieved, so he tried to brush it off by sighing and took Luffy—followed by everyone else—to an empty table.

He had picked a table near the curved stairs, and the blonde commenced to take everyone's order, but he started to flirt to the ginger girl of their group, annoying Zoro the most seeing how Luffy didn't understand what he was doing and Usopp just seemed uninterested, finding more interest in picking out what he wanted. Before long, he left upstairs and returned in almost record time, leaving the plates and glasses on the table.

"Hey, waiter! C'mere!" a familiar voice called out in their direction, causing them to look at the owner of the voice.

The blonde sighed and looked back at everyone, glancing at Luffy and Zoro the longest, as if there was something interesting on their faces. "Call me if you need anything." He said bored, but he changed his tone when he gave the privilege to Nami to call him the most, which she gladly agreed too. The false smile on her lips caused a shiver to run down the nekos spines.

The same marine who had attacked them before had the same blonde waiter from before fill his cup with a red wine and had claimed the taste to belong to a specific wine, an amused smile playing at his lips, full confidence painted on his face. "This delicate scent! It must be from Micqueot of the northern lands! And this slight sourness mixed with a thick dry taste… this wine must be Itelzbulger Stein! Am I wrong, waiter?!"

Said waiter looked at him, cocking his head slightly to the side amazingly enough since he had a plate set perfectly on his forehead. He had a lit cigarette in his mouth, some teeth being shown threw his slightly open mouth. "Not even close, sir." He said, practically mocking the lieutenant. The nekos ears perked from underneath their 'head protectors' as they listened in even more intently on the amusing conversation, amusing enough that they bit down on their lips so that they could prevent the future laughs from coming out, "Oh and by the way, I'm actually the assistant head chef. I'm only temporarily filling in for the waiters who all ran way yesterday."

The assistant head chef walked closer to the table and with his free hand he took the plate on his hand as his other prepared to be set down. "Here's your soup sir. Please enjoy it while it's still hot." He said, an even more mocking tone in his voice, but it was professionally masked by an efficacious serene resonance.

As the blonde walked away to take orders to other customers, the pirates glimpsed at the marine and felt victorious in seeing their enemy humiliated. His face was completely red as his mouth trembled, as if it wanted to blurt out something but didn't want to have a bad image. The nekos continued to watch the lieutenant as he spoke with the blonde lady in front of him but when she wasn't looking, he stomped on a bug and placed it in a soup, confusing Luffy and gaining Zoro's curiosity.

Before long, they understood what he was doing so Luffy got up from his seat and was about to walk towards the marine but said marine had already called for the assistant head chef, so he returned back to his seat and grumpily ate the food that was set in front of him, eating it a bit slower than he normally would, but still quick enough to beat a cheetah if it was a leg race.

When the chef had walked back to their table, he told him once again that he wasn't a waiter but his attention then shifted towards the blonde woman on the same table, flirting with her and successfully flattering her, but also successfully earning a slam on the table to divert his attention back to the person who had called him in the first place. "Is it customary for this restaurant to serve its soup with insects?"

"Insects?" The blonde repeating, looking almost surprised, but a look of mischief made way to his face, a plan of triumph and more humiliation written all over his features, written clearly in 'smug'.

"WHAT'S THIS DAMN BUG IN MY SOUP?!" he yelled, pointing at the insect currently trying to free itself from the body of water.

The smug look on the blonde significantly got clearer as he placed a hand on his chest. "Pardon me, sir, but I'm afraid I do not know. I'm not very knowledgeable about the many types of insects, you see."

Suddenly, everyone around them burst into laughter, even the woman the marine had invited to a date. But, without warning, he sat up from his seat and slammed the side of his hand with the bolts and metal onto the table, breaking it in two and shattering the plates, soup and wine flying in the air as his date shrieked.

The blonde just seemed to stare darkly at the spilled contents, as if the marine lieutenant had just committed the worst possible crime—his smell said it all—, his old calmness disappearing into thin air as he added to his tone an angry element, "Now, now, sir. Can't you still eat this soup as long as I remove the bug?" He asked, his voice almost pitying the soup.

Zoro looked at Luffy whose attention was glued on the event before them, although he seemed to be the only customer who had the guts to gobble up the food with loud munches and chews—in fact, he seemed to be the only one who was eating. He shifted his gaze to the two weaker crewmates of the crew and noticed that they too were watching the scene, but worry seemed to be the only thing visible on their expressions, the exception being Usopp who seemed about read to tinkle in his pants simply from the glare the chef gave to the marine.

"What did you say?" The lieutenant questioned angrily, his voice low and threatening. "I AM A PAYING CUSTOMER! For a damn cook, aren't you full of yourself?!" He yelled at him, his date pleading for him to forgive the chef but seemed too afraid to even take a step closer.

The chef glared even more threateningly as he bit on his cigarette, his curled brow somehow adding more danger to his eyes. "Can money…" He started. The nekos heard a slight tinkling sound come from next to them, but the smell proved to them that they didn't want to investigate any further, "Fill your stomach?" The blonde finished, miraculously enough, his cigarette didn't snap in two. The nekos were devoured by the smell of fire and onion, strong enough to even make the nekos believe that there were some dumb idiots inside the restaurant starting a camp fire using onions as fuel.

The chefs behind the blonde yelled out, ordering each other to do something about the current event. "We have to stop him!" This piqued the pirate's interest. What was it that made the chefs worry about the assistant head chef? "Stop the assistant head chef Sanji!" Luffy repeated the name as if it was a charm, seeming intrigued by the blonde chef, but it wasn't the same reaction he had with Zoro when Coby had first told the pirate captain about him.

But, when the marine charged at the chef with his bolted fists readied, they definitely didn't expect the power they witnessed. Sadly enough, for the innocent civilians who had traveled far and wide to taste the cuisine of the floating restaurant, they had lost most of it when they had observed the massacre of the marine, Sanji holding him high on the chin with his now bloodied hand—not his own—in the air, the dark glare not leaving his face.

"Remember this." Sanji said, his other hand stuffed in his black dress pants, the cigarette puffing out smoke as small burnt pieces fell on the floor. "Going against a cook on the seas is tantamount suicide." He looked up at his bloodied victim, who was now missing a couple of teeth and his eyes had rolled back, and his eyes narrowed impossibly more, turning his black eyes red from so much pressure he was using in them. "Don't you dare waste food." He said, his calm demeanor had returned only in his voice.

Just then, a buffer man walked into the main room and witnessed the scene before him, his mouth dropping agape as he recomposed himself and started to scold Sanji about treating a customer—no less a lieutenant—with absolutely no respect, but honestly, the nekos completely disagreed. During the murder, the blonde chef had let out a powerful anger, and it was directed completely to the marine, but for an odd reason. The smell of fire quickly turned into a nauseatingly sweet odor once it neared the spilled contents on the floor, mostly the food by such a degree that it made the nekos want to throw up right then and there. The smell of candy flowed into their nostrils every second it had the chance to and just seemed to be contained in their stomachs and lungs, staying there until more of the sweet odor replaced it.

That was pity.

Not only that; but anger, as if the marine had just destroyed what he had worked so hard to accomplish.

"It's a restaurant's duty to serve its customers!" The other chef said, his eye twitching so much it looked like he was purposely doing it, "Just how do you explain you injuring our precious customer?!"

"So what if he's the customer?" Sanji replied calmly, letting the marine lieutenant fall on the white floor unceremoniously. "He dared to waste _our_ _precious_ food and insulted a cook. I was only teaching him a lesson."

The beaten marine coughed up blood as the red liquid stained the floor, frightening even more of the other customers. "What's with this place?! How can there be a restaurant that ill-treats its customers to this extent?! I'll close down the restaurant! I'll report this place to the government!" he claimed, his facial expression filled with anger, but it didn't even compare to what Sanji had let out before.

"You're going to report us, are you now? Well, then I guess I have no choice but to kill you right now." The blonde chef said, cocking his head with bored eyes. Once he had said this, the marine flinched very noticeably and stuttered out a 'what?' causing the other chefs to scream out a loud 'NO!'

Suddenly, all the other chefs pounced on the blonde, restraining him from doing any more harm to the marine, but Sanji continued to attack verbally. "GOD, IT GETS ME SO ANGRY TO SEE A DAMN SPOLED SON OF A BITCH LIKE YOU!" his face contorted into one of impossible anger, causing even the nekos to flinch, "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" the cigarette burned faster.

Whilst being restrained, a man with a very tall toque blanche set on his head walked down the stairs, the tapping of his peg leg thumped the floor lightly. "Sanji! Are you running wild in my restaurant again?" He asked, a harsh tone in his voice.

"Shut up you old geezer." The blonde responded, trying to sound just as harsh but instead seemed a bit intimidated, although it wasn't too obvious.

"It's exactly as it seems, sir! And this time, Sanji beat up some idiot marine lieutenant." The buff man from before said, literally tattling to his boss.

Zeff, said owner of the restaurant, kicked Sanji with his peg leg, causing blood to fly out of the chef's mouth, surprising and angering Luffy a bit, mostly because he had given them nice food. The owner then stared at the marine lieutenant and kicked him in the same manner, ordering him to leave his restaurant. Sanji and the other chef then continued to fight verbally, it was pretty clear that they hadn't had enough bonding time since there was no hesitation in their words. "Patty! Sanji! If you're gonna fight, then do it in the kitchen!" Zeff ordered them, but everyone's attention soon diverted to the entrance of the floating restaurant, a bloodied marine heaving as he held the doors open.

"Lieutenant Fullbody! It's an emergency!" The marine panted some more, "Forgive me, sir! He's escaped from the ship's prison!"

Immediately, the nekos ears perked from underneath their hat and bandana (strange how nobody had yet noticed that he was Zoro), wary of the scent of gunpowder. "The underling of pirate Krieg has escaped! It took seven of us just to capture him in the first place, but now he's gone!"

"That's impossible! He shouldn't even have the strength to move! He was on the verge of death when we captured him three days ago, not to mention he hasn't had a single scrap of food then!" The marine shouted at the other, not believing what he was saying, but when he mentioned that they were starving him, the nekos felt a shift in the air near Sanji and Zeff, finding it a bit curious as to why the air suddenly felt lighter.

The marine tried to apologize to the lieutenant but before his could finish his apology, the smell of gunpowder escalated quickly and there was a loud shot booming in the large room. As the marine fell with a hole in his chest, the culprit for the death of the man of justice walked in and chose an empty table to rest his feet on, his spine slumped on the chair's back. "Anything will do. Just bring me some food." He said. Getting a closer look, the man seemed to be a pirate because the marines had captured him in the first place and because he had mercilessly murdered someone; other than that, he looked almost dead. His eyes were blackened from his black bags and the clothes he wore were just as bloodied as the lieutenant.

Patty walked up to the pirate and clasped his hands together, a creepy smile on his face. "Welcome, you squid-faced bastard!" he said, the words almost rehearsed.

"I'm only going to say this one more time so listen up! I'm a customer, and as such, you'll bring me food in this instant!" the pirate said, his voice tired as his body showed signs of hunger and exhaustion.

"Pardon me, dumbass, but, do you have any money?" The chef asked him, rubbing the back of his head with his large hand.

The pirate grinned weakly as he took out the same gun from before and pointed it extremely close to Patty's forehead, "You accept lead?"

The fake smile on the chef's face vanished instantly as it was replaced with a frown, his eyes narrowing as he cracked his knuckles without the use of his other hand, "So you don't have any money?" Without warning, Patty clasped his hands together once again high in the air and slammed his arms down, crushing the pirate underneath him and breaking the table in half, much the same way the marine lieutenant had done to the table he was at before. All the customers sighed in relief to see that the pirate was easily incapacitated and would be able to do little to hurt them, while the marine seemed surprised to see that the man who had—presumably—murdered all his marines was defeated so easily, whilst Luffy simply admired the strength that the chef had showed.

Patty continued to kick the fallen pirate even more, showing absolutely no mercy to the restaurants enemy. After many minutes of the same treatment and cheers, the buff chef grabbed the pirate and threw him out the restaurant, laughing and thanking welcoming everyone for the deed. Strange enough, Luffy's attention was caught by Sanji going up the stairs and coming back down with a plate of steamy rice and sea food. He looked back at everyone and attempted to grab another piece of food but they managed to hide their plates from being constantly vacuumed by the neko. The jaguar sighed and looked back at Sanji who had suddenly disappeared, but his scent was still in the air so he knew where he had gone. Since everyone else was too busy eating, they hadn't realized that their captain had gotten up from his seat—pouting from the lack of food—and had walked to the back door.

Once he had gone outside, he went up a different floor so that he could take out his tail from his stuffy and warm interior and let it feel the fresh breeze of the salty ocean. Looking down, he saw Sanji sitting on the railing below him grinning widely, the pirate from before eating the same food that the chef had carried just for him. The neko grinned as a sudden idea popped into his head. "Looks like I found a good cook."

Luffy's tail swayed from side to side, content on after being stuffed in his pants for such a long time that it was able to be free, but since he wanted to get a closer look at the chef so that he could take in his appearance better, he would have to put it back into his interior. Not wanting to put his furry tail back in his pants, he resorted to just coiling it around his stomach, which was much more comfortable. "Hey cook, join my crew, will ya?!" The neko asked, looking down at his objective. "Be the cook for my pirate ship!"

Sanji looked at him with perplexed eyes for a second before realizing that the kid in front of him was indeed a pirate. After a bit of chitchat, Sanji explained to the neko—who had now placed himself on top of the first set of rails of the floating restaurant—about how the restaurant was owned by the same guy who had kicked both Sanji and the marine lieutenant and who used to be a pirate; the restaurant being his treasure. After that, the blonde explained how all the chefs who had come to work at Baratie are all hot-blooded and crude enough to be pirates themselves, which was a good thing for self-defense since pirates were common around the restaurant.

"Not a quiet moment in this place." Luffy thought out loud, the tip of his tail being the only part of his appendage that was moving.

"Yeah, but it's daily routine for us." The chef replied, relighting his cigarette so that he could blow from it again. "There've even been some guests lately who come to see the pirates and the cooks duke it out. Thanks to that, all the waiters got scared and ran away." He finished, smirking, most likely remembering the times when that happened.

"Anyway, join my crew!" Luffy said, clearly excited to get a positive answer.

Sanji turned his head slightly to the side and looked up at the pirate captain. "I'll have to refuse on that offer. I've got my own reason to keep working here."

Luffy frowned which changed into a pout which then changed into a scowl. "No! I refuse!" the cook stuttered out some words, not having anticipated the sudden reaction, but the neko continued. "I refuse your refusal! You're a good cook so we'll be pirates together!"

The chef sweated a good amount before he tried to talk it out with Luffy, asking the neko to at least hear him out and when Luffy did, he simply said, "No need to tell you." Confused, Luffy pointed out what Sanji had told him earlier, much to the chef's irritation, "All I meant was that you should hear other people's opinions when talking! Don't make me chop you up, you damn straw hat wearing shithead!"

"What did you say?! Don't you dare insult my straw hat or I'll send you flying!" Luffy countered, the appendage coiled around his abdomen threatening to slap the chef in the face.

They continued to exchange insulting words at each other until the other member of the trio spoke up, catching their angry attentions. "My name's Gin. I'm a member of the Krieg pirates. So you said you're a pirate? Can I ask what your objective is?" He asked the neko, who smiled back at him and told him that he was going to find One Piece and that he'd have to go to the Grand Line to do so, but saying this only caused the pirate to tell him to give up. "You're still young. No need to recklessly rush into things. Besides, the Grand Line is just one part of the oceans in this world. If you want to be a pirate, there's plenty of other seas for you to roam out there."

"Oh…" Luffy's ears perked from underneath his hat, hearing two pairs of footsteps going towards their direction from inside the building, but he had a vague idea of who the two people could be, "Do you happen to know something about Grand Line?" He asked Gin, who grabbed his head and started to sweat profusely, stating that he didn't know anything about the ocean hence why he was so scared of it.

"For a member of the Krieg pirates, you sure are acting like a big scaredy cat." Sanji said, slightly perplexed at the sight of such and infamous pirates' underling being scared at simply not knowing.

"What's Krieg?" Luffy asked, not getting that 'Krieg' was a person.

●ω●

Zoro pouted much the same way as Luffy when he attempted to grab some more food from the others plates. He had known Luffy had left long ago when he first left, but he imagined it had to do something with the blonde cook and he had no interest in him. In fact, ever since he saw how he acted around every single attractive woman in the restaurant, he had grown a disliking towards the man.

What had really caught his attention though was when the owner—Zeff—had been staring at him, as if he expected the swordsman to do something dangerous out of nowhere and suddenly, he walked up to the bandana wearing man with words that caused both Nami and Usopp to spit out their drinks. "That's peculiar. Who knew that the great swordsman Roronoa Zoro was a neko."

Zoro snapped his head around to look at the head chef, flustered and afraid. He hadn't done anything that would reveal his identity nor had he done anything reckless. His eyes narrowed, his black orbs looking from side to side to see if anyone had heard or listening. "Is it alright I ask you how you knew?" The green haired swordsman asked threateningly.

"Easy there little cabbage." He said, nicknaming the swordsman similar to Sanji but mostly off the hair color of the tiger, "Someone with sufficient experience can see a few quirks here and there in a neko." He lowered his voice towards the end, probably so that nobody else could hear. "Your friend is also one, isn't he?" he asked.

Zoro reluctantly nodded.

"C'mon. I imagine it would be easier for you if you were with that straw hat kid. I'm sure you can trust the little eggplant enough with your secret." The head chef suggested, but Zoro mentally shook his head. He didn't even like the guy—even if he could be trusted, Zoro simply didn't want to tell _him_. Looking at the head chef, Zoro was frozen in place when he saw the mean stare directed right at him, threatening him that if he were to disobey what he wanted, the swordsman was going to regret it.

"O-Okay, geez…" Zoro said, sitting up from his seat and sweating a bit, not daring to look into those eyes again.

The old man led the tiger outside to where Luffy had been before—the second floor. They looked down at the pair as the jaguar spoke with the beaten pirate from before, the blonde chef next to him as he smoked. Zeff eyed the empty plate and glass on the wooden floor and sighed, calling out to Sanji with a harsh tone that caused both nekos to jump in the air.

"Oh! Hey Zoro. What are you doing with the old man?" Luffy asked his swordsman.

Zoro thought about it for a moment, thinking back when he simply obeyed because of the chef's glare that seemed to pierce his very being, but he didn't want to tell his captain that he had come to see them only because of that so he sighed and looked away, growling softly so that he wouldn't cause any aggression with his captain. Luffy hadn't understood why Zoro had ignored him so he lost interest quite quickly.

"Ah, sorry. Just because you gave me food, you're going to get scolded." Gin apologized to the smoker.

Sanji didn't look back at Gin and knocked the plate and glass into the ocean, using so much force that the items broke as they fell into the deep body of endless salt water. "How can I be scolded if there's no proof?" He asked the pirate, smiling. The pirate bowed at his savior. "Don't you get caught again, Gin!"

Once the pirate had left, Zeff looked at Sanji and called out to him, gaining a scowl from the assistant head chef. "Yeah, yeah, go back to work. No need to tell me, geezer."

"That's not what I wanted to tell you. Don't start jumping to conclusions." The older chef snapped back, startling Sanji.

"No way, hey old man!" Zoro touched Zeff's shoulder. "I believe neither Luffy nor I have agreed to reveal what we are. Don't go around telling random people who we are." The tiger growled, Luffy running back upstairs and Sanji following after him to where the other two were.

Zeff shot him a look, causing all three lookers to freeze in their tracks. "As I said before, don't start jumping to conclusions. I want to talk to the eggplant about something else."

Luffy looked back and forth at Zoro and Zeff and gasped. "Wait! You're not going to tell him that we're n—" Zoro slapped Luffy's mouth hard, causing the hidden neko to whimper from the burn left on his lips. "That hurt! Jerk!" Luffy said, massaging his lips.

"Little eggplant. It would be a good chance for you to go ahead and be a pirate with them. I don't need a guy like you in the restaurant anyway. Just get a good look at them and decide." Zeff said to Sanji.

He did as he was told and glanced at the pirates, his visible eyes squinting at the bandana and the hat they both wore. His eyes for some reason just latched onto their heads, much the same way his eyes react when he sees a beautiful woman. "What makes you think I would want to join them?" he then stared at Luffy who started to pout, "And follow him…?" he added.

Zeff sighed and turned away from the younger chef, his hands crossed in front of him. "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover." He said before walking away and opening the door to the restaurant. "Oh… Get to work!" He yelled loudly, frightening everyone who heard his booming voice.

The trio entered the restaurant, the nekos going back to their table where Nami and Usopp were chatting and eating. As they sat down, Nami asked the two where they had gone off to, which Luffy responded that they had gone outside to talk about stuff. Everyone except for Luffy—who sneakily stole some food from Usopp's plate—looked at each other before they sighed.

Zoro called Luffy's name.

"Luffy, remember when you almost blurted out what we were earlier?" Zoro asked his captain, who nodded as he quickly shoved another piece of meat in his mouth, trying not to be suspicious. "Before you said that, in here, that old guy knew I… _we_ were nekos."

Luffy stared at Zoro for a long period of time and changed his glance to Nami and Usopp who confirmed what the tiger was saying. "He said that someone with enough knowledge would be able to find the quirks in a neko, so I imagine that there are definitely going to be other people like him—people who aren't as 'secretive' as he is. Do you get what I'm saying?"

The other neko cupped his hand underneath his chin and squinted his eyes a bit. "Mystery quirks." He said in a serious tone, leaving everyone to bang their heads on any surface.

"No Luffy. What Zoro is saying is that you two can be easily discovered if you don't find a way to hide your identities. We don't know what these ' _quirks_ ' are so we need to know what they are before you can properly hide." Nami explained to Luffy in an irritated manner, probably annoyed because of his malfunctioning brain and mind.

"Oh, easy." The neko said, a wide smile on his lips. Everyone looked at the straw hat kid, waiting to hear what he had to say, "Let's just try everything until we find what we're looking for."

Everyone groaned.

"Luffy, do you even know what we're talking about?" Usopp asked his captain.

Luffy stared at his sniper with a blank expression, "Nope." He said, popping out the 'p'.

Everyone groaned again.

"You know what, _captain_ , I think it's useless trying to talk to you about serious matters." Zoro said, muttering something about why he had to follow such a guy.

In all honesty, Zoro didn't really know what to think of his pirate captain. The kid was childish as he didn't understand how to properly act or say in serious situations, but he had seen the strength the jaguar had and why he used that strength—to protect the people he cares about. All in all, he had mixed feelings for Luffy. He wasn't a captain worth following if you expected a smart person who was powerful in brute strength; much like Kuro, but he was definitely on his list of worthy enough captains if you wanted to follow someone who cared for their crew and only used his strength to protect the importance in their life. Thinking it that way made Zoro smile a bit, a pang of pride impacting inside him when he thought about the fights that Luffy had. They all had to do with something that meant protecting something. He fought with Buggy because the clown had insulted both his hat and his role model, Shanks, and with Kuro because Usopp's village was going to be slaughtered if they hadn't done anything.

He sighed, and finally decided that it was a good idea he followed this idiot. His tiger tail flipped inside his trousers in approval, having almost a mind of its own.

Sanji approached the table they were sitting at and set two glasses in front of Nami, a perverted look on his face. "Please enjoy this fruit Macedonia and this glass of grand Marnier." He said as he filled the empty glass with the orange liquid.

"Oh thank you so much!" Nami said as she clapped her hands together, a wide smile topping it all off. "You're so nice." She complemented him.

"Oh, it's nothing." He said, his voice strangely enough very calm.

Usopp suddenly snapped and started to slam his hands continuously on the table, getting the attention of the chef. "What about us!? This is gender discrimination! I'll sue, you love-crazy cook!"

Zoro ignored the sniper as he sipped the tea the blonde had given the males. He wouldn't admit it, but the tea was amazing. Normal tea had a normal taste that wasn't so original, but this tea would suddenly pop into his taste buds and leave a tingly, mixed taste on his tongue. In fact, it was so good that he finished his cup without taking a breath.

"I already gave you some tea!" Sanji scowled at Usopp, whose eyes bulged out, "You could at least say a word of gratitude for that, punk."

"Wha—? You wanna start something, is that it? I ain't gonna go easy on you! Get'im, Zoro!" Usopp grabbed Zoro's shoulder, pointing at the chef with the same hand so that the swordsman would know who he was talking about. Zoro sighed and without looked, grumbled out a negation, telling the sniper to get him himself as Nami ate her fruit drink, Luffy wanting a bit of it. Surprisingly enough, she actually let him have a bit, probably because he used his big eyes to beg.

"You haven't even cleared my plate." Usopp said, pointing to his plate in front of him. The fight continued longer when Sanji pointed out that there were still some mushrooms on said plate and Usopp told him that he disliked mushrooms because he was poisoned by one when he was a kid, but Nami managed to stop the fight—not by force (amazingly enough)—by intertwining her fingers together and with a pleading look, she told them—specifically Sanji since she could manipulate him with ease—not to fight because of her. This caused Sanji to easily stop his argument but seemed to anger Usopp even more.

She continued this act and even managed to get out of paying simply by asking the blonde chef. "You're paying though!" He added when his eyes landed on Usopp.

Luffy attempted to grab the rest of Nami's snack and caught Sanji's attention. He was about to get kicked on the head but Luffy—not yet having get rid of his puppy eyes from before—looked up at Sanji and the chef immediately stopped, surprised at the overwhelming _cuteness_ the pirate possessed. For now, the straw hat wearing captain was safe, only because he literally forgot to put away his large eyes. Honestly, if those were his natural eyes, he would be getting anything he wanted in the world.

"You're a real witch, aren't ya…" Zoro mumbled, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Luffy sipped the tea from a stray cup on their table, amazed by how the tea tasted amazing as Nami replied to Zoro's comment, telling them that they should watch out in a victorious tone.

"Oh wow! Zoro, have you tried this tea?" Luffy asked the green-haired swordsman, latching onto the chair the tiger sat on.

"Yeah, I have Luffy." He replied in a bored tone.

"It's real good! Right?!"

Zoro stayed silent for a moment, checking around him to make sure that the chef was nowhere near him, luckily, the blonde chef was off flirting with two other females who had barely entered the floating restaurant, Usopp commenting on how he was a 'damn letch'. "Yeah. I guess it is." He said softly, not wanting anyone to hear since he didn't want the other guy to know that he actually liked the cooking.

●ω●

For the next two days, Luffy had asked his crewmates if they could stay a bit longer. They could leave anytime but the jaguar simply wanted a good chef to join his crew, and he was pretty damn persistent. Each time he saw Sanji, he would pounce on him as if he were prey, latching onto any limb he could grab at and he would start to repeat the same words over and over again, sometimes adding some more words so that the chef would be convinced a bit easier. "C'mon! Sanji! Be the chef of my crew! It'll be fun and we'll have tons of adventures! Join my crew!"

"For the last time, I won't go! I have my own reasons to deny your invitation." Sanji scowled at the tugging neko, trying to unlatch him from his waist. "Let go!"

Suddenly, there was a loud shattering sound that seemed to ring out throughout the whole restaurant, a scream soon following the broken glass. "IT'S DON KRIEG'S PIRATE SHIP!" they heard someone yell. Immediately, they rushed to look out the windows and watched as the large galleon grew closer and closer to Baratie.

"A skull with two hourglasses at its side, to threaten their enemies…" a customer started.

"There's no doubt about it! That's Krieg's flag!" another followed.

"Why is he here!?" the last one finished everyone's thoughts.

"Talk about a huge ship! Gin must've come here to repay his debt to you!" Luffy said to Sanji, unlatching him from his grasps as he grinned wide at the sight before him. Indeed, the ship was larger than any ship he had ever seen, if not, bigger than Shanks ship, but he said nothing about the appearance of the poor ship.

"Somehow, I don't think that's the case." Sanji said, sighing after finally being freed from the thin arms around him. "But it's strange…" he said, the chef eyeing every crack the ship had.

"That ship… is in complete shambles!" someone yelled out, everyone seeing the obvious.

The ships sails were torn in various places, not even half of the sails were there. The wood and paint of the galleon were broken and scraped off, the figurehead missing a large chunk on the left side. The railings were just as bad as the sails and there were ginormous gaps and chunks missing dotting everywhere they could see.

"To turn a gigantic galleon into that sad state… that's no work of humans." Sanji concluded, Luffy setting his grabby hands on his hips, "They must've been caught in some natural disaster."

Suddenly, the doors flew open as a larger and weaker figure was supported against a much smaller and thinner looking figure. They took a few steps inside the restaurant and paused, the larger man looking up at everyone inside the Baratie was a frightening stare. "Sorry for intruding…" His voice was shaky and deep, sending shivers down Luffy's spine as he instinctively took a step back, practically behind Sanji, which didn't go unnoticed by the chef.

Sanji looked back at Luffy who was slowly inching himself closer to where he had been standing before, noting that the pirate looked almost scared. He looked back at the larger pirate and noticed the glare that seemed to be the reason as to why the usually cheerful kid was practically shaking. He wanted to ask him what was wrong but the pirate started again.

"But could I have some water… and food?" Luffy flinched at the voice again. It was practically inhuman. He had never heard such a voice in his life before so he definitely wasn't prepared to hear the voice of the large pirate.

He hated that voice.

It made him shake.

He didn't like it when he was dominated.

Luffy took in a deep breath which managed to ease his shaking. The appendage in his shorts were in between his legs but he then coiled it around his thigh so that he could control his tail a bit better.

"If it's money you want, I've got plenty…" He continued, his breaths shaky and he had to stop once in a while to take plenty of deep breaths.

Luffy stepped closer to Sanji and sighed, his blank expression returning to his demeanor. He surpassed the dominance Krieg had. "He looks like he's starving."

"Wonder what happened…" Sanji thought out loud. He took a quick glance at Luffy and was surprised when he saw that his body and expression had completely relaxed. He thought back when the kid was practically shaking in his sandals, his eyes glued to the floor trying to evade the stare the other pirate gave to everyone.

Suddenly, Krieg fell onto the floor with a loud thud, Gin collapsing to his side as he tried to pull his captain back up, but he didn't budge. "I'm begging you! Please, give him some food and water! Please save my captain! He'll die at this rate!"

Luffy looked around him and noticed that everyone was staring at the pirates with uncompassionate stares which clearly read that the pirate captain should just die. Not a single face showed any sign of mercy or compassion, they all wanted it to end. They all wanted them to end.

Immediately, laughter interrupted the dreadful and deadly silence, the laughter coming from the same person who had kicked and punched Gin. "Perfect! Just perfect! So this is what the infamous outlaw Don Krieg looks like?!" Luffy watched as Sanji left upstairs and stayed up there for a good amount of time. He followed after him and peeked inside the kitchen where the blonde was pulling out various ingredients and mixing them together perfectly on the stove. Luffy smiled and ran back downstairs, where, for some reason, almost every single customer and chef had something to say to the fallen pirates.

After hearing every complaint and negative responses from the customers and chefs alike, Don Krieg hoisted himself up, struggling to even move, and bowed his head. "I won't do anything. If you give me food, I promise I'll quietly withdraw from here… so please, please help me…!" Luffy's attention was soon caught by the sound of footsteps coming down from the stairs, looking back, he saw Sanji with a plate filled with food and a bottle of wine. "I'm begging you…! I don't mind if it's leftovers or whatever! Please, just give me anything!" He begged some more. "Anything!"

Patty scowled and narrowed his eyes as Sanji neared behind him, "Trying to earn some sympathy points?"

Sanji raised his leg and with a quick turn, he kicked the other chef on the cheek, causing Patty to be sent flying a good few meters away from him, all the while the plate in his hand was neatly set on the tips of his fingers. Once he was on the floor, Sanji walked closer to Gin and gave him the plate and bottle of wine, "Here, Gin. Give this to him." He said compassionately.

Immediately, Krieg picked up large handfuls of the rice on his plate, stuffing it into his mouth and he yelled out the words 'thank you' over and over again, tears brimming his eyes as a few drops managed to escape his eyelids. One of the chefs from behind Sanji pointed at him and yelled at him, "Hey Sanji! Take that food back this instant! Do you have any idea what kind of man he is?!"

Sanji bit on his cigarette as Luffy looked at the chef with interested eyes. He had only heard so little of the pirate and he had a feeling that he was going to need a bit more information about him if he wanted a chance to beat him in a fight, "The ruler of East Blue, the king of deceptions! That's Don Krieg for you! He started out by disguising as a marine after escaping from prison! He then killed the marine officer in charge of the ship and took it over! That's how he became a pirate! Since then, he's attacked ports, towns, and other ships by hanging a marine flag… and when attacking his enemies, he hangs a white flag to attack them by surprise! He's a man who'll stoop to anything in order to win! And that's how he made his way to the top! His strength ain't no exaggeration either! You really think he'll just leave after eating?! That's utterly impossible for him!" The chef pointed at the eating pirate, "Letting a demon like him starve to death is for the good of this world!"

After he had finished that sentence, without any sort of warning, Don Krieg slammed Sanji on the ground in between the joint of his arm, causing the blonde chef to spit out blood from the hard impact he had on his head, a loud snapping sound heard throughout the restaurant. Luffy gaped at th sudden movement and immediately, he wanted to run up to Sanji and check if he was alright, but after Gin had attempted to bring some sense into his captain, he was grabbed by the neck, pausing Luffy's movements.

"That was a great meal. I feel like I'm back to my normal self again." He started. His voice wasn't trembling before, as if he had never been weakened.

"Gin!" The neko shouted, Krieg not having yet let go of the pirate's neck.

"So he reveals his fangs at last." Sanji said, a sly smirk on his face as he got into a more comfortable position on the floor since his head a neck hurt like hell itself.

"Nice restaurant you've got here." Don Krieg started, a bored expression on his face as he stared at the chef's direction, "I'll take it."

●ω●

All the customers ran out of the restaurant in a hurry, people falling over and getting stepped on along the way as the others behind them pushed harder and harder to escape Baratie as they yelled to everyone else to hurry. "Get on the boat! We've gotta get out of here before we're surrounded!" The more controlled ones yelled to everyone else.

Luffy helped Sanji up as the chef massaged the places where it most hurt, mainly his neck and shoulder since they were the parts where it banged on the ground first. The neko looked at Gin and asked him if he was alright, but the other pirate didn't respond. Instead, Don Krieg grinned wickedly as he eyed the place, the smile on his face growing bigger and bigger as he observed his surroundings better, "My ship's all worn out, so I've been wanting a new one. Once my business is done with you, I'll have you get off this ship." The pirate cracked his knuckles without the use of his other hand. "Right now, I have around one hundred subordinates on my ship, and they're currently starving and critically wounded. So prepare enough food and water to feed all one hundred men of mine. There are a few who've already starved to death, so make it quick."

Luffy really disliked the way he talked about the death of his crewmates but he had no business with him at the moment, so he brushed away the thought and listened as the chefs tried to go against him, but the pirate glared at them with a horrid stare, sending a shiver down his spine. "I'M ORDERING YOU. NOBODY DISOBEYS MYS ORDERS!" he yelled through grit teeth.

Immediately, all the chefs froze as many more shivers ran up through many more spines.

"Sanji, you bastard! It's because of you that we're in this me—," Patty said, looking behind him as Luffy followed where he was looking, "Hey, where do you think you're going?!"

Sanji got up from the floor, walking away from the group limping a bit, although it didn't seem to be causing him much pain. "To the kitchen," He wiped off a drop of blood from his mouth, Luffy understanding that from the way he smelled and looked, he was annoyed by something. "In order to prepare enough food for one hundred people."

As soon as the blonde had said that, all the chefs stared at him shocked, Luffy realizing that there was definitely a reason as to why Sanji would prepare food for the enemy. Although he understood, the chefs didn't. Each one pulled out a gun out from underneath their clothes and pointed it at the head chef assistant, Sanji actually looking a bit surprised before his blank expression returned back to his face.

"Who the hell do you think you are, Sanji? Krieg's secret agent or something?" A chef asked, a scowl clear on his face. "We ain't gonna let you take one step into the kitchen. We've had enough of your insane and reckless actions!"

Sanji stared at them longingly before a grin made way to his blank face. He spread his arms wide and looked at the ceiling, allowing anyone to get a clear shot at him whether it be a pirate or the chefs. Luffy stared at him before he changed his glance to the chefs, making sure that none of them were going to hurt the other chef. "Fine. Stop me if you wish. Go ahead, shoot. I know that they're nothing but scum who aren't worth a dime saving, but to me, none of that matters. Thinking about the consequences of feeding a person… it's all such a big hassle."

Luffy didn't really understand what he meant with those words but he knew that it was something important to the chef. The next words he said only made him believe what he thought as true. "A cook should be freely able to feed anyone who's starving." He lowered his arms a bit, probably tuckered out from the hard impacts he had to endure earlier just so he could stand up, "Isn't that ideal?"

Luffy smiled fondly at Sanji, feeling his respect for the chef go impossibly higher, but that moment of pride was destroyed when Patty rushed over to Sanji's side and punched him on the head with both of his fists, bringing the chef to the ground. Instinct took over for a mere second as Luffy let out a loud hiss, getting the attention of everyone in the room. He began to stutter, trying to find an excuse to sweep the event from before away, but the chefs ignored him as Patty ordered any chef to hold Sanji down, looking away from Luffy.

Patty changed his view from the neko to Sanji as he pulled out a figure underneath a white cloth from seemingly nowhere that reached to around his waist line. He pointed at Sanji with his large finger and scowled at him, "Sanji, I know you feed the customers I chase away from time to time, and I'm not going to say who was right and who was wrong for all those times, but this time," He rose his voice so loud it grew uncomfortable for the neko, so Luffy pressed his hands on top of his hat in an attempt to block the voice out but it didn't seem to work since he didn't want to dent his hat too much, "it's all your fault! So don't you dare do any more unnecessary things! I'll protect this restaurant myself!"

Luffy looked at Sanji's and saw his annoyed look, his eyes narrowed as he wriggled his shoulders a bit so he could tend to his new headache. As Patty continued on with his seemingly unimportant speech, he pulled out what was hidden underneath the white cloth and Luffy was quite surprised. He had definitely been expecting some sort of gun because of the smell of gunpowder and metal, but the design was much more intriguing and unique than what he had thought at first. He let the cloth fall on the floor as he positioned the launcher underneath his shoulder, his free arm supporting the weight of the entire weapon. With a teeth-baring scowl, Patting set his hand on the large trigger and yelled, "If you're finished with your meal, how about having an iron dessert!? INDIGESTION MEATBALL CANNON!"

The cannonball shot out from the mouth of the lobster-like launcher, charging at incredible speeds towards the man he was aiming for in a short distance.

The pirate cursed as a look of frustration and dismay was written all over his features. The cannonball made a connection as it exploded on impact, sending Don Krieg flying out the door. The entrance broke down, the hinges of one of the doors breaking and the margins were burnt or crisped. The gunner pointed that out as he realized that Zeff was going to have a chat with him because of that. The other chefs deemed it fine since it was collateral damage from protecting the restaurant, but Sanji had another thought in his mind. "What're you planning to do with his underlings on the ship?" he asked Patty, who was grinning back at him.

"Well…" He lengthened the word, "maybe we oughta butter his ship up and roast it with fire?" He asked almost innocently, but the way his grin and eyes were narrowed, Luffy thought otherwise.

Luffy's ears perked from underneath his hat, his cat ears picking up the shuffling and snapping of wood from where Krieg had fallen before. As expected, the pirate stood up, smoke coming off his body. "That's the best dessert you've got, you lousy cook?" He used that voice again.

Luffy sighed. His canines grit hard inside his closed mouth as he just wanted to tear out everything that had to do with the production of that _sound_ inside the other's body.

"Serving that pile of crap for dessert…" He continued again, his layer of protection glittering. "This is the worst restaurant I've ever been to…"

Luffy stared at the golden armor the pirate wore, completely unscathed from the explosion he had withstood moments prior—although disliking the man greatly, he had to admit that the armor was admirable.

All the chefs, shocked at the sudden return of their enemy whom they though had been defeated, snapped out of their fazed states and pulled out larger versions of silverware—the main option being forks—and they charged at the pirate, everyone letting out a battle cry.

Out of nowhere though, the shoulder's and waist's parts of Don Krieg's armor opened automatically, revealing twin sets of launchers and guns, his own pair of hands holding pistols, not hesitating to shot every single one of the charging chefs.

Each chef was wounded somewhere, whether it be the arm or leg, the waist or the chest, a bullet found its way to their body. Screams of agony filled the room as blood flew in the air, decorating the walls and floors with blotches of red 'paint'.

The only ones who weren't wounded were Luffy, Sanji and Gin, all of which hadn't charged at the much larger pirate. The neko and the cook gaped at the scene as Gin hid his eyes with his hands. Luffy wished he could do the same, try to hide the sight of his _interest_ —that sick interest—but his nose would easily pick up the scent, his ears would easily hear the dripping of the red liquid and his mouth could already taste the copper. He just had to remain calm. That's what everyone around him had always told him. So, that's what he did. Despite the fact that there was so much blood splattered every like a mass murder scene, he bit his lip and got a taste of his own, _calming_ himself.

"You damn worms think you can defy me?! I'm the strongest!" Don Krieg yelled, "This steel arm, more powerful than that of anyone, this body of steel, tougher than anyone else's…! And this diamond fist that can pulverize anything! My entire body is a tuned weapon! I'm the fleet admiral of fifty ships and the commander of five thousand men! I've won every single battle I've been in! There is no other man more worthy of the title 'Don' than I am! So if I tell you to prepare the food for my men, then you shut up and do it! NOBODY GOES AGAINST DON KRIEG!"

Instead of finding the man's booming voice terrifying, the jaguar now found his speech annoying. The way he just had to yell out everything to the point where he spoke in first person—Luffy found it irritating.

After he finished that thought, Luffy's ears perked from underneath his hat since he heard silent footprints going towards and past him. He looked over to his side and watched as the head chef walked in front of him and Sanji with a large bag slung over his shoulder. He walked in front of the armor wearing pirate and set the bag down, all the chefs calling out to their boss. "Owner Zeff!"

"There's enough food here for a hundred people, so hurry up and bring it to your men." Zeff said with an emotionless tone.

The pirate had a shocked expression at first, his face sweating as he questioned his thoughts out loud, "Did… did they just say 'Zeff'?!"

Everyone ignored him since the chefs had exploded in angry yells and questions, "Sir! How could you give them the food?! Just what's the meaning of this?!"

"One the pirates on that ship recover, they'll take over our restaurant!"

Luffy's ears perked, swearing he had heard the back door open just now. After some time, he heard a pair of silent footsteps coming towards them, and if not for the familiar smell, he would've missed the second person. He was right when he though he heard someone walk in the restaurant.

Zeff turned to all the chefs, his back towards Krieg. "That's only _if_ they still have any fighting spirit left at all." He said, the chefs quieting down to listen to their boss. He turned back to look at the large pirate, his eyes squinting a bit, "Isn't that right, defeated warriors of Grand Line?"

All the chefs' eyes widened when they heard Zeff, not believing that the pirate before them had been defeated. "The strongest man of East Blue…! The pirate fleet admiral of fifty ships… even he was utterly defeated by the Grand Line?!" Luffy didn't mind the fact that the pirate had been defeated. It made him feel a bit better, but if he were to feel really good about the defeat of someone, it would have to be by his hands, but what really caught the neko's attention was the fact that he had _been_ to the Grand Line.

"You're… Red Leg Zeff!" Krieg stuttered, his eyes constricted, but after what seemed an eternity, his calm demeanor returned, but it was still noticeable that he was still a bit shocked, "So you were alive, Red Leg Zeff. The peerless captain and cook of his own pirate crew."

"So what if I'm alive? It's got nothing to do with you. As you can see, I'm living as a mere cook now." Zeff replied, his expression almost bored.

Krieg laughed, crossing his arms as a grin made way to his face. "Interesting to hear it put that way… but from the way I see it, you're living as a cook not by choice, but because that's the only thing you can do." Zeff glared at the man, "With the way you are now, you can't wear your infamous 'red shoes.' He then went on about Zeff's history, and although Luffy never really found an interest in the pasts of other people, he had to admit that the way he had gotten his name was pretty cool. He would pulverize bedrock and leave imprints n steel. That deserved a round of applause.

"Your nickname 'Red Leg' refers to your legs," Luffy stared at the peg leg and the normal one, not seeing what he meant, "That would be dyed in the blood of your enemies after a fight." Now he understood. "Though I've heard from rumors that you died in a shipwreck, it seems that you've managed to survive, though at the cost of one of your precious legs. With one of your legs gone, you shouldn't be able to fight anymore."

Luffy smelled something burning next to him, seeing now that it was coming from Sanji. He wasn't smoking, so he knew that it had to be something emotional. There was also something salty in the mix, the smell seemed to swirl around the blonde chef. Luffy didn't question anymore, but he wondered what caused Sanji to feel _guilty_ about the loss of Zeff's leg.

"I may not be able to fight anymore but I can still cook as long as I have these hands." He paused for a moment after raising his hands. Surprisingly, getting a better look at them, they were perfectly clean. Not a single scar nor was there dirt hidden in any crack. Sure, his hands were getting a bit wrinkled from age, but that was to be expected. His hands were also large and looked callous, much like Zoro's hands which hardened from so much work he applied to them. "But just what are you getting at exactly?" The chef asked the pirate.

Don Krieg set his hand underneath his chin, a large crooked smile on his face, all his deformed teeth bare. "Red Leg Zeff, you're a man who once braved the waters of the devil's hideout, the Grand Line itself! Not only that, you returned without injury. You must've kept a log during your time in Grand Line. So what I'm getting at is… HAND OVER THAT LOG TO ME!"

Luffy ignored what the other pirate was saying and looked at Zeff, a grin on his face. "Cool, you've been to the Grand Line, old man?" He asked, his voice calm and not too excited since he knew for a fact that he was definitely going to go there one day.

"Yes." He replied bluntly, uninterested with the conversation he would've had with the kid if he continued to talk to him, so he changed his conversation back to Don Krieg. "You are certainly correct to assume that I kept a log, and I indeed have it to this day. But I shan't hand that over to you. That log is the pride of me and my men who bravely ventured Grand Line together. It's much too valuable to give to the likes of you!" Zeff hissed at the pirate, who didn't seem to take it well since he growled softly, clearly growing louder.

"Then I'll just have to steal it from you!" He said, his fist ready to pummel anything, "It's true that I came back defeated from the Grand Line…! But even so, I'm still the mighty Don Krieg! That ocean shrouded by darkness, the mention of which causes weak men to tremble in their boots. I had enough power to conquer that sea! Enough manpower! Enough ambition! The only thing I lacked was information! That was my only flaw! I simply did not know enough, which is why I'll steal your travel log and this ship!"

"Like hell we'll let you! If we lose this ship, we've got nowhere to go!"

"That's right! All the cooks here were chased out by other restaurants before finally finding their home in this place!"

"Owner Zeff is the only one who accepted us as chefs! He's our savior!"

"We ain't letting you pirates steal our home away!"

After the chefs had tried once again to yell their wills, Don Krieg once again overpowered each one of their yells with his own, "Silence! The difference in strength between you and I is clear as night and day! I even proved it to you just now!" Luffy scoffed. His weapons were artificially made. Although he had no idea how devil fruits were created, he used his own flesh and bone to fight, "Don't you dare forget that I'm the strongest! Once I obtain Zeff's travel log, I'll reassemble my pirate fleet, and find One Piece to become the greatest pirate of this era!"

Luffy's body stilled.

The world around him stilled.

He wouldn't have any of this nonsense.

He stood high as he took a step closer to the man who had just claimed his dream, purposefully making his footsteps loud so that Don Krieg's attention would be brought to him. He set a hand on his hip, his arm pointing at him as he scowled. He wouldn't growl yet. If he needed a fight to happen, he would growl then. "Hold it right there!" Everyone's gazes were latched onto him now, "The one who'll become the Pirate King is me."

Once he had said that, the smell around him was pure confusion and fear, the only ones he didn't smell neither came from Zeff and Sanji. The others though tried to contemplate the new information, not completely comprehending what the raven had just said. For someone who had never met Luffy personally, they would think the same way, but for someone who knew him on a personal level, they would think otherwise. He was a strong-willed person, someone who would never back down even if his life depended on it.

He was a person who fought for his dream.

He wouldn't stand down when someone declared _his_ dream.

As Patty tried to convince Luffy to stand down, the hidden neko simply answered with, "I'm not standing down, especially at this point!"

Though, his statement seemed to irritate the other pirate quite some bit, "Did you say something, little brat? I'll be nice enough to let your comment just now slide."

Luffy crossed his arms. "It's fine. You don't have to let it slide." He replied smugly. "I was only stating the truth."

"This isn't a game." Krieg replied darkly, trying to beat the neko with a glare, but didn't work. It worked before, but he had already gotten used to the sight.

"Of course." Luffy said, wondering if the footsteps from before would speak up now.

Once again, he was correct to think that.

"Did you hear that just now? Even Krieg couldn't make it in there!" Luffy looked at the sniper, who was quite a distance away from him, but still near enough for him to leap once and get close to him. "I won't say anything bad so let's just give up on going to a place like that!" his voice was practically a shrieking noise, and he was sure that the green-haired man next to him was feeling uncomfortable because of the high pitch.

"Just keep your mouth shut." The swordsman hissed, pulling out his katana—sheath and all—over his shoulder as he looked at Luffy atop his chair, Usopp sitting on another chair on the same table with his feet on the seat. "You planning to rumble, Luffy?" Zoro said with a playful grin, his dark eyes surprisingly cheerful, "Need a hand?"

Luffy had expected them because of the footsteps he had heard before, but he had to admire the swordsman's silent pace. "Oh hey, Zoro, Usopp. No it's fine, you can just stay sitting down." A smile grew on the jaguar as he turned his head more to face Zoro. "Hey, Zoro! I almost didn't hear you there. Can you show me how you can hide like that?" Luffy asked the swordsman, who grinned back.

"Sure thing. But honestly, you can't even do that?" Zoro asked, an amused smile playing at his lips.

"Nah. Everyone told me I walk like a fat giant." Luffy said, his grin disappearing, "But I'm getting better at it!" he added.

People started mumbling and whispering to each other, from what the nekos could hear, they were either talking about the man in front of the was indeed the one and only Roronoa Zoro or what the two pirates were talking about earlier.

Their mumbling was soon halted to a stop when the main enemy's chuckles could be heard, getting louder and louder until he burst out in uncontrollable and mocking laughter. "Are those your crewmates?! A rather small bunch, aren't they?!" He boomed.

Luffy frowned and held up two fingers, "What're you talking about? I've got two others as well!" he heard Sanji mumble something behind him, probably mentioning the fact that even though he wasn't in his pirate crew, the straw hat captain still counted him in.

"DON'T JOKE WITH ME, PUNK! EVEN MY FLEET OF FIFTY SHIPS AND FIVE THOUSAND PIRATES WERE UTTERLY DECIMATED BY THAT DEVILISH SEA IN ONLY SEVEN DAYS ONLY BECAUSE WE LACKED INFORMATION!" Don Krieg yelled, giving Zoro a small shiver and causing Usopp to vibrate the table. Zoro still hadn't gotten used to his voice yet.

"D'you hear that just now?! Fifty ships gone! In just a single week!" Usopp slammed his fist on the table as he cried comical tears, grabbing his head as if it were soothing him.

Zoro smirked, calming down a bit, "Sounds interesting." He said, actually interested in going to a place like that.

Krieg also calmed down a bit, but the frustration and anger was still visible on his face, "Even as a bluff, your comments just now show how completely ignorant you are to reality! If there's one thing I hate, it's empty boasting like yours! Keep saying that and I'll kill you right on the spot once I get back from unloading this food!" Luffy stared at him blankly, thinking back if he had really boasted and as for Don Krieg, he grabbed the bag and slung it over his shoulder. "As for the rest of you, I'll give you a little extension. I'm going to go give this food to my subordinates and then return back here. I'd suggest you leave this place within that time if you don't want to die. The only things I need are this ship and Zeff's travel log."

He started walking out of the crisped entrance, leaving Gin wounded on the floor. "If any of you still feel like dying even after I warned you, then so be it! I'll bury you to the bottom of the sea for eternity!" He claimed, but Luffy found no interest in his empty threats.

'As if someone could bury someone else at the bottom of the sea for eternity. A person can't breathe that long.' Luffy thought, finding the threat annoying.

Once he was far away, Gin gripped his shoulder harder, causing his whole body to tremble from fear, sadness and pain. "Sanji… please forgive me! I had no idea… no idea at all that this would happen…! I…"

"There's no need for you to apologize." A deeper voice replied to him, the nekos and Usopp recognizing it as Zeff's. "The cooks of this restaurant acted out of their own free will, and this is the result of that."

Patty spoke up again, not understanding what Zeff was doing nor saying, "Sir! How could _you_ of all people side with Sanji on this!? Just what's the meaning of this?!"

"That's right! He's the one to blame for all of this!" Someone else yelled.

"He just wants to destroy this restaurant that's so important to you, sir!"

"Sanji!" Someone yelled loudly, pointing at him as the blonde rested his elbow on his raised knee. "Were you planning on using this mess we're in to become the next head chef?! Or have you just completely lost it?! Which is it?!"

But, what happened was what the chefs least expected, "SILENCE, YOU NUMBSKULLS!" Zeff yelled at them with an extremely loud voice, "Have any one of you ever been hungry enough to die? Do any of you know just how terrifying and painful it is… to be stuck in this ocean, deprived of food and water?" Luffy looked at Sanji who was now lighting a cigarette, his eyes shadowed by his bangs.

"Wha-What do you mean, sir?" Patty asked him, but he received no direct answer.

"If you've got time to be crying over spilt milk, then just leave this place using the back door." Zeff said, not even angry anymore, as he pointed behind him.

Slowly and steadily, the chefs one by one picked up their fork-like weapons as each one declared that they were going to protect the restaurant—-their home.

Gin—almost forgotten—spoke up with a loud and tired voice, questioning them as to why they were preparing for a fight when they lost the first one horribly.

Sanji walked up to him, his annoyed and irritated smell now gone (Luffy briefly wondered what caused the chef to emit that smell, but it vanished once he took out and lit a cigarette), and stood right in front of the pirate, "Hey, Gin. Let me tell you something. It's my duty as a cook to feed anyone who's starving." He let smoke out from his mouth and put the cigarette back in, "But the ones who're coming to attack this ship are those who've already been fed, so you better not complain when I kill them." Suddenly, his expression grew darker than Don Krieg's, "If someone is planning on stealing this ship, then I'll kill that person without a second thought, even if it's you." His gaze softened far too quickly, "Got that?"

Patty noted that Sanji had just saved many people but he was going to kill him afterwards, sarcastically mentioning him that he was 'a great guy', only to have Sanji respond to him with 'shitty' again.

Luffy walked up to Zoro and Usopp and sat on the table, his leg propped on the seat of an empty chair, pointing at Sanji. "Hey! What do you think about him? Pretty good, right?" Luffy said, desperately wanting to convince his own crew to allow the chef onto his crew.

"Who cares about him!? If we don't get out of here soon—" Usopp started, but he couldn't find a way to finish his sentence without scaring himself.

Zoro snorted as he placed his hand on the table top, "Calm down. Our enemies are wounded pirates."

"That's right. And besides, I have to fight with that guy. If he truly is strong, then he and I are going to butt heads eventually anyways." His eyes widened a bit in realization as he changed his attention to Gin, calling out to him and successfully getting his and Sanji's attention, "You said you didn't know a thing about Grand Line, but didn't you guys go there?"

Immediately, Gin grabbed his head and seemingly wanted to hide from everyone's sights, "What I don't know is the truth… I just can't believe it…I just don't know if those seven days we spent in the Grand Line was real or just a nightmare… I'm still wrestling with it in my mind…" He paused for a second to take in a sharp and raspy breath, "He just appeared all of a sudden…" the grip he had on his head tightened noticeably, but he soon let go of his head as his body went limp, using his right hand to cover the right side of his face, not wanting to remember any more. "To think all fifty ships of the Krieg pirate fleet… were destroyed by a _single_ man."

"While we still had no idea what was going on, our ships sank one by one… and if it weren't for that storm that whisked us away, even our main ship would've sunk…" Gin told everyone, he curled his body with his elbows on the floor. "It's just too terrifying to believe as real…! I don't even want to think about it…!" he said, almost stumbling over his words. "That hawk-eyed man whose glare is sharp enough to kill a man…! I don't! I don't want to think about him!"

Zoro felt a shiver run through his body, strong enough to even numb his hands and feet. He shot his head to look at the shivering pirate on the floor, his eyes shivering just as much as the pale man, not being able to concentrate on one point in front of him.

"How could our entire fleet be sunk by a single man?!" The pirate screamed out to everyone in the room, the hands on his lowered head gripping tighter around his short hair. Impossibly, Gin started to tremble even more noticeably.

Zeff sighed and broke the silence apart from the silent breaths from everyone, "That had to be the work of the Hawk-Eyed man, without a doubt. Every chef stilled, seeming to know who Zeff was talking about, but Luffy and Usopp remained clueless, apart from Gin. "You saying that you witnessed a man, whose glare was as sharp as that of a hawk doesn't necessarily prove it was him, but the fact that he sunk your entire fleet is more than enough proof that it really was him." Zeff said, his arms crossed.

Usopp gasped, sweat running down every inch of his body as he stuttered out the words 'Hawk-eyed', but he slumped back tino his chair with his arms behind the back of the chair, "Who's that?" he asked, not interested nor knowing how much of a threat the man was.

"Beats me." Luffy quickly responded, paying no attention to how quickly Usopp recovered.

Zoro sighed and set his elbow on the table, speaking up. "He's the man I'm searching for." He said, dead serious, "According to what Johnny said…" Zoro thought back when they first met up with his 'brothers'.

"Hawk-eyed man, huh…" A chef with a small moustache said, the giant fork over his shoulder.

"I'd it's the red-eyed man, I remember him coming to this shop before." Another spoke up, grinning.

"Right, you mean that guy who got so piss-drunk from wine that his eyes turned red." Another said, not too cheerful.

"Yeah, that idiot who caught on fire and blew up."

A chef laughed, "That was quite a sight."

Zoro realized what they were talking about and sighed, _'Even that 'Hawk-Eyed man you've been looking for has been sighted there once before'_ , "That idiot got his information mixed up…!" He hissed.

Luffy looked back at Zoro with curious eyes as the tiger crossed his arms, "What about Johnny?"

"No, never mind…" Zoro sighed again, his tail losing enthusiasm.

Sanji crossed his arms as he asked Gin a few more questions related to the destructive matter, smoke puffing out from his cigarette placed in between his teeth, "Did he bear some ill grudge against you guys for him to destroy you entire fleet like that…?" He asked, almost reluctantly.

"I don't remember anything like that!" Gin slammed his hands on the floor, sweat running down his face as his face burned with fear and humiliation. "He just attacked us all of a sudden!"

"Perhaps you disturbed his afternoon nap." Zeff said, eerily serious after his opinion.

"That's bullshit! You mean to tell me he destroyed our entire fleet for that!?" Gin said, clear anger in his voice, wanting to disbelieve what he was hearing.

Zeff sighed and placed his hand underneath his chin, "No need to get so irritated, it was just an example. That's just the kind of place Grand Line is."

Luffy and Usopp didn't understand very much but Zoro placed his forearm on the flat table, "A place where even the abnormal is normal, huh."

After hearing Zoro, Luffy grinned wildly as he brought his elbows next to his sides, his hands in fists as he trembled in excitement, giggling, "That sounds like such a thrill! We definitely gotta go there!" He said, Usopp trying to convince his neko captain to think about the danger.

Zoro grinned in a way he never usually did—it almost looked passive, but his pose dismissed that thought—it looked pretty calm and his eyes were non-threatening, albeit his hands rested on the buttcaps of each of his swords. "But with this it looks like my own goal is inextricably tied with Grand Line, considering that _that man_ is there as well." Both Luffy and Zoro could feel the gaze of an extra member set on them, but he hadn't spoken up until he had heard everyone's wills—apart from Usopp.

"Bunch of idiots. You lot are the type to rush over to your deaths." He said, his index and middle finger trapping the cigarette in between his mouth.

The cook looked at the trio, thinking about what Zeff had told him earlier. To observe the pirate captain and swordsman. Apparently, Zeff had seen something in them that he found worthy to watch over him, but honestly, Sanji didn't want anybody to watch over him like a kid, especially to a group of pirates who were as dumb as monkeys who had drunk all the alcohol in a bar. His eyes narrowed a bit when his met with the green haired man, a strange animalistic aura empowering him, almost drawing him in from curiosity, but in all honestly, the swordsman had a glare that could kill his prey.

The same teenager once again set his elbow on the top rail, his back slumped on the back rest. "True, but I'd rather have you leave out the 'idiot' part." Although Zoro couldn't say the same for his captain regarding the 'idiot' part, "Ever since I've decided to become the world's greatest swordsman, I threw away my attachment to life. The only one who has the right to call me an idiot is me alone."

Luffy raised his hand, "Ooh! Me too!"

"As a real man, the same goes for me too." Usopp said, his arms crossed in front of his chest in a way that would be intimidating on the tiger but not on the archer. Zoro grabbed one of his swords and bonked Usopp's head with the buttcap, calling him a liar.

Sanji scowled, his face shadowed considerably, "What a load of crap."

The nekos looked at the head chef and saw a wide grin plastered on the man's face, wondering what they said that caused the man to bare a smile like that—it also didn't look quite right on his face since he was usually a serious and hot-tempered man.

Gin was silenced but Patty got up from his spot on the floor and picked up his large battle fork, "Hey, retards! Haven't you realized the situation we're in right now?! The gigantic galleon that's parked right in front of our restaurant belongs to the pirate fleet admiral Don Krieg! The ship of the strongest pirate in all of East Blue! You got that?! So you can continue your little conversation after we've gotten ourselves out of this mess!" He said, pointing the fork at them. Although he had said those brave words, his body betrayed his words. His body trembled and sweat littered his face. Not only that, but the nekos could smell the intense fear coming from Patty.

After every one of the chefs recomposed themselves, they readied once more for battle. The nekos sat calmly at their table while Usopp hid mostly behind it, but he did have the guts to peek over the top. Luffy and Zoro's s ears perked high—still hidden and uncomfortable—at the sound of crashing and stomps, meaning that the pirates from the great pirate fleet were going on board. The sounds of metal and gunpowder made it obvious that they also brought weapons with them.

They barged into the building, "MOVE IT YOU DAMN COOKS!" many of the pirates chorused, their yells like scrapes and claws on the chalkboard.

As they finished their yells, a loud creaking sound rang through the oceans, causing everyone to pause and to look outside. Nothing seemed much different from before: the wrecked ship was still in its spot from before as a few more pirates jumped off from the ship, but a few stopped on top of the decks and looked down below their feet, as if expecting the sound to ring once more. Instead, splinters shot from the ship, causing the water below to explode like a bomb. The ship was then sliced in half, water filling in the rooms which were neatly separated from the other side.

The figurehead of the galleon appeared to have been screaming in agony, its toothed mouth agape as if screaming a silent screech.

Immediately, the nekos eyes widened. The sensation around them was almost drowning them in so much pressure, as if gravity had decided to side with the phenomenon. As if on cue, Zoro's animalistic aura exploded from his body as he grinned madly, his eyes hungry as he sniffed the same spot over and over again, his mouth almost panting as the red aura surrounded him. "It's him." He said, his voice shaky but calm.

Luffy felt the killing intent coming from his swordsman, his tail bristling, telling him to get away from the predator, but he knew Zoro very well. Despite the fact that his nature was telling him to either defend himself or run away from the danger, he decided to stay right where he was. It wasn't his job to stop the killing intent of another neko, but it was his job to protect his friends, so he shifted closer to the swordsman and placed his hand on his shoulder blade, causing the green-haired man to look at him with hungry eyes. "Don't worry, Zoro. We'll get to see the guy you're looking for soon enough." The jaguar said, his voice surprisingly calm and reassuring that caused the tiger to calm his breathing. His eyes returned to normal and his killer aura disappeared.

"Sorry…" Zoro said after becoming calm once again. His voice was soft, practically ashamed.

Luffy grinned, "No problem, Zoro!"

Luffy turned his head towards where the sliced-in-half galleon was, staring at it, seeing the killer intent from behind the ship vanish as well. The one behind the destruction of the Don Krieg Pirate Fleet had definitely felt the aura inside the restaurant, so it made sense for him to return the same greeting.

Usopp and everyone else screamed at the sight, even Zeff stood dismayed by the sight before them. The galleon sunk even more, the two large pieces quickly drowning in the water because of all the space inside that invited the salty water inside.

The pirates looked outside for a second before a quick thought was slammed right into Luffy's mind, "Crap! Our ship was outside too with Nami, Yosaku and Johnny still inside!" Luffy jumped off the table he was sitting on top of and ran over tables and people to get to his destination. Zoro and Usopp followed suit, chasing after their captain with the legs made of what seemed to be pure muscle as Zeff barked orders to the other chefs, telling them to raise the anchor or else they would sink.

Luffy, Zoro and Usopp made it outside, but they weren't expecting what they saw. Yosaku and Johnny swam over to them, desperately trying to take a breath as they rushed to where the trio was, crying out 'bro' and 'brother Zoro' constantly, as if they hadn't already gotten his attention.

"Yosaku! Johnny! You alright?!" Zoro asked his 'brothers', his hands placed on the same railing as Luffy who was carefully balanced on top of the railing of the rocking restaurant, "The ship! Where's our ship!? What happened to Nami?!"

"About that…!" They tried desperately to swim towards the pirates but the current was far too strong, "We're sorry, bro…!" They started to choke, "She's not here anymore!"

"Sister Nami…!" Johnny started, snot and tears covering his face as the water quickly washed them away.

"Took the treasure and sailed away!" Yosaku finished, crying just as much as Johnny.

The trio stared at the pair of bounty hunters, taking their time to process the information given to them. After what seemed like an eternity, their calm demeanor completely vanished, turning into shocked expressions that cold outmatch what they had seen earlier.

After the stilled shock, Luffy and Zoro helped the bounty hunters onto the deck where they were standing at, the hunters bursting out into more cries as they told them what happened, continuously apologizing as the pirates showed their own way of how they handled the situation.

Zoro slammed his fist onto the nearest wall, "Damn that woman! Just because she was acting all nice recently, I let my guard down for _one moment_ and then this happens!"

"How dare she pull as fast one over us, especially during this crisis!" Usopp yelled, his fists close to his chest.

Luffy on the other hand, kept a calm demeanor. As much as he hated to accept the fact that Nami had basically robbed them, there was no denying the truth, so instead, he searched for the Going Merry and he eventually found it after a few seconds, "Wait! I can still see our ship!" The jaguar turned to the bounty hunters and hunched over them, "Yosaku! Johnny! Where's your ship?"

"Well, we still have ours." They both responded.

Luffy turned to his crewmates, calling out their names.

"Just let her go. No good will come of chasing that thief." Zoro said, clearly agitated.

Usopp snapped his head to look at Zoro, telling him that she still had their ship and that it was important. Luffy smelled the intense fear around Usopp and realized just how special it was to him, and judging from Zoro's flinch, he knew that the tiger noticed as well. Feeling that now could be the perfect time, Luffy's eyes showed great emotion to how much he didn't want to abandon his friend. "I want her to be our navigator… no matter what!"

Zoro flinched and looked deep inside the eyes of his captain, feeling something deep inside him that was hurting him more and more as he looked inside his onyx eyes, as if they were something that reminded him of his best dream breaking apart. Those eyes full of worry. They really cared about the people around him, for his navigator.

The tiger stared longingly at those dark eyes; they were drawing him in like a black hole pulling its prey, as if he was tied at the end of a leash and his owner was pulling him, tired of the disobedience. The more he looked at Luffy's eyes, his felt his chest tear itself apart.

 _Would those same eyes worry just as much if it was me?_

"Fine." The tiger said, his eyes softening in a way that neither Luffy nor Usopp nor the bounty hunters had ever seen before. Zoro mumbled something else, but he quickly turned away and walked the opposite direction, not daring to see Luffy's eyes nor was he willing to let anyone else see his weakened state.

As Usopp and the bounty hunters readied the ship and Luffy declining to go because of his 'duty as a captain', everyone jumped high when they heard the scream of someone, his voice shaking in fear, "IT'S HIM!

"Don Krieg! It's him! The one who destroyed our fleet!" Everyone looked at where the voice was coming from. Although no one could see the person speaking, they could definitely see who they were talking about.

Luffy and Zoro felt their bodies drop from the pressure coming from the man, as if gravity was much stronger around the man than anywhere else. They straightened their bodies in an attempt to try to defy such pressure and surprisingly, it worked well. They stood tall and looked at the figure in the hexagonal boat, its black sails furled as the figure below crossed his legs like a royal.

"He followed us all the way out here! He's come to kill all of us!" the pirate continued to warn his captain.

Zoro squinted his eyes and stared at the man in shock, his eyes widening in realization. It felt as if a bullet train had hit him. He knew that the man he was searching for was indeed close, but he never thought that he would encounter him so early on his journey. He gulped down nothing as his throat was as dry as a desert, not willing to produce more saliva because of the shock. "I-It can't be… is that…" the tiger felt something inside his gut twitch, his predatory instincts kicking in, "The Hawk-Eyed Man…?"

Sweat dripped from the predator, for once in his life he felt scared but at the same time, he felt an excitement rush through him like a hyper cheetah. He subconsciously wringed his fingers together and stretched them, as if trying to get his fingers to warm up for what would be coming next.

The man—renowned and strongest swordsman—Hawk Eye Mihawk, had his head bowed down, preventing any actual eye contact with anyone else. His fingers intertwined with each other as his foot that hung from his leg dangled in its spot, the plume on his wide-brimmed hat shivering from the wind that the explosive waters from before created. A crucifix pendant hung from his neck—as still as he was. The black coat he wore covered the sides of his body, flapping calmly in the wind.

The man was calm.

The greatest swordsman in the world had just sliced a galleon in half without anyone ever seeing the attack. He sat there, the lone seat on his small boat providing him a throne only he was worthy of—strongest swordsman.

He looked up, his blood red eyes piercing the weaker souls. The nekos felt a shiver run down their spine, but knew that they were capable of devouring a hawk. Not as much as the greatest swordsman, but definitely capable of eating a bird of prey.

"Damn it! What did we ever do to you?! Why the hell do you have to follow us all the way out here?!" A pirate yelled at the Hawk-Eyed man.

The swordsman tilted his head a bit, looking at the pirate with a mix of boredom and agitation. Hawk Eye sighed and turned his head a bit high, as if he really was someone royal, but from what the nekos could tell, the swordsman had no intentions of bragging or boasting, but they were surprised when they heard the answer of Mihawk. "Just to kill some time."

The pirates were immediately angered by the answer. One pulled out twin pistols and commenced to shoot many bullets, the smell of gunpowder filling the air. Mihawk grabbed the hilt of his sword—a beautifully crafted piece indeed—and with a flick of his sword, the bullets missed their target. The steel pellets flew over his head by a meter and he sheathed his sword into the scabbard on his back.

"Wha—!? I-It missed?!" The pirates exclaimed in shock.

Zoro walked behind the group of pirates, a grim look on his face, ready to slaughter. When he had reached the group, Hawk Eye looked at him with a surprised gaze, his red eyes glaring at the green-haired swordsman. "He deflected it." He said, his eyes not breaking contact with the man he wanted to win against, "It'll be the same no matter how many times you shoot. He changes the bullet's trajectory with the tip of his sword."

All the pirates jumped, surprised to not have heard the lower-ranked swordsman before, cursing at him from the shock, "I've never seen such graceful movements." Zoro praised the man, his face calm.

"A sword without grace is no strong sword." Hawk Eye Mihawk responded back, his mouth in a frown.

"Did you cut this ship as well with that sword?" he asked.

"Yes, indeed."

A wide thin grin made way to Zoro's face, his face sweating a bit, "No wonder…" he felt his heart beat faster and faster by the second, his canines and fangs appearing from his widening smirk. "You really are the strongest." Not only that, but he could feel the intense pressure coming from the man, his strength beyond comparison to any other swordsman. He heard behind him the mumbling of the enemy pirates, whispering to each other if he really was the swordsman who wielded three swords. "I set sail to meet you." He said, rubbing his bandana to make sure that it was already in place.

"What do you aim for?" Mihawk asked, eyeing the bandana on Zoro's head.

" _To be the strongest_." He said, tying the knot of the bandana even though it was already on his head. He pulled out his sword and pointed it at his enemy, "You said you're free, right? So let's have a duel."

"It's him! Zoro! Roronoa Zoro of the three sword style…!" The pirates figured out, jumping further away from the green haired swordsman. The ones who hadn't figured it out yet were left speechless after the chorus of 'what?'.

Luffy stared at his swordsman, the bounty hunters and Usopp on the small boat Johnny and Yosaku owned, but the neko didn't budge from his spot, nor did he blink nor did he react. He stared at the two swordsmen, feeling the ferocity around Zoro and the calm but deadly aura around the man he wanted to defeat.

"It _would_ be fun to spar with a different species of human, but pitifully, it would be no different than slicing the ship you are currently standing on." Mihawk responded, though his response caused the nekos to glare at him, "You're friend too." He said, looking to his side to meet eyes with Luffy, but he turned his attention back to the person who asked for the fight.

"I'm tired of all the people figuring out who my captain and I are. Mind telling me how you know?" Zoro hissed, his voice low but loud enough for the other person to hear.

"You dare step foot into these waters without even knowing that?" Mihawk almost mocked, his voice practically breaking into a chuckle, "It's quite simple." The nekos subconsciously leaned in closer towards the strongest swordsman in the world, wanting to hear what he had to say that could be put into good use, despite the fact that it was coming from the enemy of Zoro. "You are constantly hiding yourselves from the world. Why would you constantly be wearing something that could slip off at any given moment when the world _will_ find out? It's best to just let everyone know right now. You would be saving so much more trouble." He responded.

Zoro snarled at him, thinking over what the other swordsman had told him. "You didn't necessarily answer my question." He reminded him.

Mihawk stared at him for a moment before sighing, but he grinned a bit. The smile wasn't dangerous, it looked more as if the swordsman was remembering something, "A person with cat experience should recognize the face of a feline."

Luffy and Zoro were shocked for a moment, before each one let out some sort of chuckle, Zoro being able to control his laughter much better than his captain. "Was that really it, or are you just mocking us?" Zoro asked, the ends of his mouth tugging a bit despite the fact his mind refused to let it show.

"From the extent of my knowledge, that is the only evidence that one needs to figure out who you two really are." Mihawk said, his smile disappearing back into a blank expression. Everyone around them stared confused at the conversation the swordsmen were having, the only ones who really understood were Usopp, Yosaku and Johnny and Zeff.

 _Then that means the head chef owned a cat before. He sure doesn't seem like the type of guy to care for any sort of animal, seeing how he is a chef…_ A thought struck Zoro when he said the word 'chef'. He rethought it for a moment and a shiver ran down his spine. _Unless he didn't actually care for them…_

Zoro lost his smile as well (from both the discomfort of his thought and because his enemy had grown a serious aura) as Mihawk sat up from his lone seat on his hexagonal boat and walked onto the wrecked deck and wooden floorboards of the ginormous galleon. "You said you wanted a duel. Although you are a rare species, I will not hesitate to kill you. If you're a competent swordsman by _any_ means, then I can demonstrate the clear difference in strength between you and I, without needing to cross blades at all." He crossed his arms and looked at the tiger. "But still, you dare to challenge me. Does your bravery come from your conviction…?" he took a long pause, "Or form ignorance?"

Zoro growled and placed his white-hilted sword into his fanged mouth, "It comes from my ambition…" He thought about his childhood. Flashes of his memories lit up his mind—every image containing the same blue haired girl who would knock him down every single time he dueled her, wanting to beat her for once, all the way until his memories paused suddenly, not wanting to venture any further, "and a promise to a friend."

Luffy looked at the two swordsmen. He could sense the calmness and seriousness in the air, varying. He looked over to his own mate and saw him flinch for a second, but it didn't seem to waver his confidence and nor did it diminish his cool. In fact, it seemed to do the opposite. His confident smell grew stronger and stronger the more he held those swords, and soon enough, a red glow appeared around his friend.

Looking at his enemy, he knew that he had also noticed the sudden change around the neko, now that the pressure from before almost seemed even. A look of confusion spread across Mihawk's gaze, but he calmed down not a second later.

"To be honest, I never thought I'd be able to meet you so early on…" Zoro's voice didn't sound like his. It was lower and even more intimidating than his usual glare. Luffy looked back at his friend behind him and noticed that neither of them had ever heard such a tone from Zoro.

Looking back at his swordsman, Luffy swore he saw the figure of a large cat looming behind him, but disappeared as quickly as he had seen it. He gulped a lump in his throat, grit his teeth and clenched his fists tighter and tighter. He knew that what his crewmate was currently doing was something that should not go unsupervised, so he made the decision to stay. Stay until the unhappy end came.

Luffy stared blankly at the soon-to-be-fight, his face grew a bit serious, seeing how he found no possible good outcome after the fight. "There's not a chance someone can match our bro!" Yosaku said, punching the air in front of him, but Luffy wasn't so sure.

After a few seconds, Mihawk pulled on his pendant, yanking it from his neck although he showed no actual pain of discomfort of doing so. With the crucifix in his hand, he pulled off the largest part of the cross, revealing a small, thin dagger that looked to be only three inches long maximum. Zoro growled at the treatment he was receiving and bit harder on the hilt of his sword. "Just what're you planning to do with that?" He asked, his eyes narrowing and his red aura strengthening.

 _Only testing how much brutal one could get_. Mihawk thought, but he spoke it out in a different way, "I'm different from those stupid brutes who'd go all out just to hunt a mere rabbit—or in this case, a cat. Though you may be a swordsman of some renown, this is East Blue, the weakest of the four seas that are separated by Red Line and Grand Line. Unfortunately, I do not have a blade smaller than this at the moment." He said, his eyes looking either incredibly bored or tired.

"There's a limit… to just how much you can underestimate me…!" Zoro growled, charging at the swordsman. "You better not regret it when you die!" the red aura around him grew impossibly larger, even managing to surprise Hawk Eye Mihawk that he took a hesitated step back, but he recomposed himself quite quickly, albeit it was slower than the other times.

The aura quickly formed into something else. First, it appeared like a large cat, jagged, black stripes running down its almost invisible body, but it vanished into nothing a second after he charged. Thinking the coast was clear was a mistake for the swordsman, as the aura appeared much larger and intimidating than before, the teeth and eyes looking as if they had been melted off, dripping red invisible drops everywhere. The black stripes of the tiger melted as well, looking as if the creature had been laying in the heat for far too long, causing its own body to smelt. Not only that, but that theory was very possible judging from the heat around the charging 'tiger', feeling as if he was standing right next to magma, barely touching his feet.

Zoro charged towards his enemy, his head bowed down as he crossed his arms. "Oni…!"

Mihawk looked at Zoro and brought out his dagger right in the center of where all his swords overlapped, "Giri!"

The aura around Zoro recoiled, roaring in silent screams that no one else seemed to hear. The aura screamed more and more, trying to pass the defense, but to no avail. The creature let out another scream before slowly growing smaller and smaller, closer and closer to its container. Its screeches diminished as well, the volume of its wails lowering every passing second that he held his dagger in place, as if the way he stopped the katana were enough to bring down the demon.

Without anyone noticing, Hawk Eye let out a small and inaudible snarl, tensing his arm to prevent anything to be seen.

Luffy stared at the empty space above Zoro's body, remembering the appearance of the creature that hid itself inside his swordsman's body, ready to come out and take over at any moment when it wanted to. He sighed and thought back, remembering his own.

The tiger opened his eyes and widened them considerably when he noticed that his finishing move was blocked so easily.

His mind was fogged though, as if someone had dumped cold ice and water over him for hours and hours until he numbed out and slipped into unconsciousness. He stared at the dagger preventing his katana from going forward and felt strength vanish from his systems. He had so much fuel before, but now, he felt as if he was draining, and fast. He looked at the famous swordsman in front of him and shivered, trying to press forward but failed every time.

 _This is ridiculous! That's impossible! Why are we different?_ Zoro forced more power and strength into his arms, letting out a battle cry that bared his sharpened fangs. _It's not possible for the world to be this far away!_ He swung in every possible direction, trying to get a hit on the other male but the man blocked it with ease, as if he was playing with a child. Suddenly, Hawk Eye knocked him onto the ground.

Zoro was panting. He was tired and sweat wouldn't stop from dripping from every single part of his body. _There shouldn't be such a vast difference between us! There can't be!_

"Such ferocity…" Mihawk said, his voice unwavering.

 _I didn't train so hard until today… just to fight against this stupid little toy…! I TRAINED TO WIN!_ A girl crying large droplets of tears appeared in his mind, her short, blue hair instantly recognizable.

 _You're lucky you're a boy, Zoro… I wanted to become the world's best too!_ He shook his head and roared loudly, causing the spectators to flinch from the loud cry.

 _Someday, one of us will become the world's greatest swordsman! Let's compete to see which of us will be that person! It's a promise!_

 _I came to beat this man!_ Zoro growled in his mind.

 _I'll become even stronger for her sake! I swear I'll become the world's strongest swordsman whose name is famous enough to reach the heavens!_ He remembered all the times when pirates would run away from him and the time when he first met Yosaku and Johnny, their fake smug looks and their fake confidence clear.

"What burdens you so? What do you still desire at the extent of your strength?" From what Zoro could tell, the man in front of him wanted to say something else, but didn't find any need to do so.

Zoro looked at Mihawk with exhausted and frustrated eyes, practically red from so much stress in the last few minutes, but before he could say anything, Hawk Eye flung him to the other side with only hid dagger.

He quickly scrambled back to his feet, his whole body quivering from exhaustion and overexertion. "TORA…"

 _World's strongest swordsman! Sounds great! If you're gonna be the pirate king's shipmate, you should be able to accomplish at least that much! Otherwise, it'll be embarrassing for me!_ Luffy popped into his mind, his cheerful grin plastered on his face. He bit into the hilt of his sword, tasting a copper flavor from the rayskin.

"GARI!" he said, his eyes locked onto piercing red ones. As he charged towards the strongest swordsman in the world, he felt something plunge into his chest. Sharp.

Luffy winced and desperately wanted to rush over to his swordsman's aid, wishing that the tiger aura from before would return and attack Mihawk again, or else he wouldn't have to watch through tortuous scenes of his friend being utterly defeated.

Thin streams of blood rained onto Zoro's chin from his grit teeth, subconsciously clenching his teeth and hands tighter around the handles of his katana. Red liquids pooled onto his shirt and haramaki, drenching his dirtied clothes with more body liquids. He stayed there, no intention of moving back to avoid the dagger from entering his wound again. He simply stayed there.

Mihawk looked at Zoro with a blank look, but surprise and confusion was indeed in there. Blood spilled onto the wooden floors as Zoro's trembling legs causing creaking noises on the floorboards. "Do you wish for me to pierce you heart thus? Why do you refuse to step back?" He asked in a bored but curious voice.

"Beats me… not really sure myself… but I get the feeling…" He took a deep breath, "that if I were to take even one step back right now, I'd lose something very important to me… a promise or oath… or whatever it is would be irreversibly broken, and that I'd never be able to return back to where I'm standing right now."

"Yes, such is defeat." Mihawk responded, no sign of pity in his voice.

Zoro laughed weakly for a second, "Then that's why I can't step back."

"Even if it means your death?"

The tiger smirked devilishly, "I'd much rather die."

Quickly, Hawk Eye Mihawk pulled out his small dagger from Zoro's chest, a fountain of blood exploding like a firework from his chest. "Kid, tell me your name."

Zoro positioned his swords in a triangle in front of him, the blood pouring from his fresh wound. There was a small pause, the only sound coming from the waves and the breathing of every spectator and the fighters. Finally, the neko responded, "Roronoa Zoro."

Mihawk smirked for a second but it vanished, instead, he raised his hand to pull out the same blade he had used to slice the galleon, "I shall remember it, for your strength is nto often seen in this world." He pulled out the sword from its scabbard completely, all eyes staring at the piece, "And to pay my respect to you as a fellow swordsman, I shall end this duel with my black sword, the world's strongest sword."

The spectating enemy pirates gasped as they recognized the sword immediately, realizing that it was the same sword he had used to slice apart and destroy their fleet. Zoro started to spin all three of his katana as Mihawk charged towards him, his black blade ready to slice anything. _So this is it… the final blow… if I miss here, I'll die… to be the world's strongest… or to die here and now…!_

He continued to spin his swords, faster and faster until one could literally see the winds around them spiral. "Three Swords Style: Ougi…" Zoro slashed forwards at incredible speeds, "Sanzen Sekai (Three Thousand Worlds)!" Zoro ended up behind Mihawk, the wound from before spilling more blood from the action prior. Zoro kept his head low, knowing the outcome. He sighed and waited until finally, the katana in his hands gave in and snapped, neatly sliced.

 _I lost… I'm no match for him… never even thought about the possibility of losing,,,_ Blood poured from his mouth as he sheathed his surviving white katana into its scabbard, _So this is… the strength of the world's strongest…!_

Zoro grinned and stood up, his arms wide apart with his left one holding his blade, his bleeding chest exposed. Mihawk questioned his actions but Zoro simply answered with, "A wound on one's back is a swordsman's shame."

Mihawk grinned wildly, liking the idea, "Splendid." With that, he brought down his sword and sliced through Zoro's chest, every muscle on the neko's body tensing from the intense pain. Buckets and fountains of blood exploded in the air, painting the floors and Zoro with the crimson fluid.

Luffy stared in shock.

He wanted so desperately to cover his nose to prevent from smelling the metallic torture and his eyes because he didn't want to see his friend on the brink of death. He felt his heart crack at the sight, unable to comprehend what he should do. His breathing grew harder and harder, more unsteady and even more unsteady. His breaths turned into ragged pants, unable to grab enough air in one breath. His chest tightened, as if tensing from instinct and from the sight of the wound. With the remaining air he had left in his crippled lungs, he screamed, "ZORO!"

He felt his body lift, as if all the pain from before vanished into thin air. He knew exactly what this was. He didn't mind though. That swordsman had _killed_ his friend, and the beast inside was going to help with that.

 **Oh, what do ya know. I'm almost done.**

 **(One) piece out!**


	6. Chapter 6: Stentorian Feline

**Yay! Finally! The merging and editing have finally ended!**

 **Although my surgical skills of combining and fitting aren't as practiced as I previously assumed, since recently a review mentioned the lack of Luffy's interactions with Mihawk. Checking it, I realized I had neglected two of my chapters.**

 **Oops.**

 **Onto the story!**

Blood gushed out from his swordsman's new wound, shooting boomerangs of blood into the air. Luffy stared on in shock, a small tear brimming his left eye. "Zoro!" he yelled once more, outmatching Usopp's cry of shock. He felt the air around him tense even stronger, feeling something course through his body that seemed to enlighten him.

He let out a gargled scream as he charged towards the strongest swordsman in the world—the same man who let the body of his friend drop into the ocean. He stretched his arm behind him and released it in front of him, his hand grabbing the railing behind Mihawk as the rest of his body released its main weight, causing him to be flung to the other side. He let out another cry. Anger whipped inside him, so much in fact that he didn't even hear what anyone else was saying. Their shouts and screams should've been loud enough for him to hear, but his mind blocked it all out.

Right now, he felt himself lift even more.

He wondered if what had happened to Zoro before he fell into the water was going to happen to him, but if he had a chance of beating the swordsman, he was going to take it.

Mihawk had his arms crossed over his chest, easily evading the body that had quickly closed the distance between them. Luffy crashed on the railing he had latched on to, his head getting stuck in the wooden boards of the rails. Noticing this, he raised a fist and smashed the wood that kept him in place, freeing his head.

He stared at the strongest swordsman with a killing intent in his eyes, his eyes unsteady. He was ready to charge again, ready to claw and kill, but Mihawk raised his hand in front of his face, stopping him in his tracks and mildly confusing him. His eyes and body stopped shaking as well, and instead, a curious and confused look made way to the neko's face. "Fear not. That man is still alive." Luffy looked at him and when he heard the troubled shouts of Yosaku and Johnny, he shot his head in their direction.

They were in the water, carrying a body in their arms as they desperately swam towards their boat. "Zoro…?!" Luffy yelled, frantic to know if his friend was okay. Getting a good look, the tiger looked far from good. His eyes were rolled back and each second, he would cough up more and more blood, the wound on his chest bleeding out like a broken dam, staining the waters red into a sick purple. He cried out Zoro's name once more, as if he wanted to make sure that he was definitely alive if he responded back.

Luffy stared on at the group of friends running around frantically to get what they needed, everyone barking out different orders to each other.

"I am Dracule Mihawk." Mihawk shouted towards the fallen swordsman, "It is much too early for you to die. Know thy self! Know thy world! And become strong, Roronoa!" he finished.

The jaguar stared at how quickly everyone was working, applying bandages and medicine and alcohol to the wound that was so badly hurting the green-haired swordsman.

"No matter how many months or years pass by, I shall stand here at the top of the world and wait for you! So forge on ahead with that fierce conviction and try to surpass my sword!" Luffy stared intently at him, the lightness in his body now gone but not necessarily bothering him, "Surpass me, Roronoa!"

Luffy sighed and placed his elbow on his raised knee while his other hand rested on his other. "Boy, what do you aim for?" Mihawk asked, turning around to face the neko who hissed at him back, although practically silent.

"Pirate King!" He said loud and clear.

Mihawk smirked, closing his eyes, "A tough path indeed. Even tougher than surpassing myself."

"Whatever!" Luffy stuck his tongue at him, "I'm going to do it anyways!" He turned away from the swordsman and faced the working group, asking Usopp if Zoro was alright.

"Like hell he'd be alright! But he is still alive! He only lost his conscious!" Usopp responded, his face contorted in stress and laced with worry, sweat dripping of him as if he was running a marathon. Yosaku and Johnny helped a bit, but they only provided more stress to the real on working because all they really helped with was saying unhelpful words to try to get the swordsman to speak up—which wouldn't really help him in the condition he was in either way.

●ω●

Zoro felt his insides burn when he fell into the water. The salts from the sea seemed to prick at him, going deeper and deeper into the wound that he willingly let taint. He continued to go deeper into the waters, tugging at him to make him drown faster—to go lower into the dark depths. For a while, he could hear Luffy's voice, screaming his name, albeit he barely missed it, which was followed by yells and screams of confusion and shock. He could only imagine that either Luffy had used his devil fruit abilities or he had revealed to everyone present that he was a neko. He really hoped it wasn't the latter.

After some time, he could sense a burning pressure, high above the waters. He knew what it was. Because of him, Luffy was going to go insane.

The more he descended, he couldn't feel the pressure anymore. Either he had gone too deep or Luffy stopped. Something calmed him down.

He felt the world around him spin.

Air burst out of his lips, blood followed after the red bubbles that escaped his mouth.

He closed his eyes and felt his bandana slowly slip off, so he used the rest of his strength and put it back on his head, as if it was going to be the end of the world if he didn't.

His eyes only barely open, he saw two figures going closer and closer to him. Once they were close enough, they hoisted his arms over their shoulders as they ascended back up. He opened his eyes once again but he couldn't see anything, only pure red. After what seemed like an eternity, he felt a cold touch his upper body, taking advantage of the water and blood and other liquids that he had on him that would make him colder.

Once up, he could hear Luffy shouting out his name. He closed his eyes—no use in them anyway—and felt his body handed to other arms, although they were weaker and trembling. Probably Usopp. He thought.

"Hurry up and get him on the boat!" someone yelled. It sounded like Yosaku.

After some shuffling around, his limp body was set on the clean decks of the wooden boat (not so clean anymore though), as people began to touch his abdomen and chest, placing different liquids and bandages over his wounds that continued to bleed red. His breaths grew ragged and his throat burned. He had drunk ungodly amounts of salt water and had gagged out blood. It was to be expected.

Although, he wasn't expecting to hear the one who had done this to him. At first, it was hard to know what he was saying, despite the fact that the voice was loud and clear, but his mind refused to clear itself. His brain continued to sway and a large headache set in, but he did manage to pick up a few parts. "I… Dracule Mihawk!"

That's his name…

"Much… early…you…die."

It took him a while to figure out what he had said, but when he did, the pride in him slowly started to return.

"Know… self! Thy… world!"

What does he want me to know? Zoro couldn't help but wonder. He felt a sting on his chest, clawing its way deeper. Alcohol.

The times before he had to strain his ears to hear only a little bit, but he didn't need to since Mihawk said in an even louder voice, "And become strong, Roronoa!" he stilled, amazed but shocked to hear what he was hearing. In the same tone, the world's greatest swordsman continued, "No matter how many months or years pass by, I shall stand here at the top of the world and wait for you!" And impossibly, his voice rose even more, as if he wanted to make sure that the tiger would hear it, "So forge on ahead with that fierce conviction and try to surpass my sword! Surpass me, Roronoa!"

At those last three words, Zoro calmed his breathing and calmed his expression (which he was sure was filled with pain and distress. Pride swelled in his chest as his brain replayed the words over and over. He couldn't help but smile, even though it wasn't shown on the outside, he was smiling bright.

But then, a rush of thoughts flooded him, drowning his pride for more than he normally accepted.

What about Luffy? What have I done for him? I've don't absolutely nothing. I'm supposed to be bringing him forward so that he could accomplish his dream, but instead, I'm here, losing in front of him when I'm supposed to winning… just for him… so that he can become King of the Pirates. Ever since I joined, that has been my new role. To help Luffy become Pirate King…

His limp hand turned into a fist as he grabbed his wet katana and unsheathed the steel perfectly, catching the ray of the light when he raised it in the air. He felt extreme pain when he had done so, and his pants grew harder. He could hear the questioning voices of everyone around him, but he heard Luffy's quiet cry of 'Zoro' above them all. He felt everyone's gazes on him, and he shifted a bit when he felt the piercing glare of the Hawk-Eyed Man. He took in a deep breath and started.

"L-Luffy… C-Can you hear me…?" he asked stuttering. Water continued to drip from his clothes and skin.

"Yeah!" Luffy confirmed, his voice impatient, as if he had been waiting for this his whole life.

His mouth started to tremble and blood slipped from his lips, causing the trio around him to think that he was in pain. In reality, he was in pain, but not physically. "Sorry for worrying you…" Those words practically caused him to choke. It hurt. "I know…" He felt his eyes glass over, behind them he could feel the breaking of the dam. Water was breaking through, "That if I don't become… the world's strongest swordsman, it will only embarrass you…!" His throat was scratchy now, and the fact that blood still lingered there wasn't helping either.

Realizing this, his body reacted instantaneously and he coughed up blood, his arm holding his treasured katana trembling a bit as his 'brothers' tried to convince him to stop talking.

"I swear!" He said loud and clear, ignoring what they tried to tell him. Finally, thinking about the words he was about to say, the dam exploded. Tears rushed down his face as he cupped his forehead with his hand, "THAT I'M NEVER GOING TO LOSE AGAIN! Until the day I fight him and win… I swear… TO NEVER LOSE AGAIN!" his voice quieted down again and he felt the tears halt, "Any problems…? PIRATE KING!?"

Luffy grinned as fake light shined around him, giggling, "Nope!" He said, his answer short but filled with so many emotions.

Mihawk turned to look at the neko captain and smirked, "You make a good team. I'd like to see you two again sometime in the future…" he turned around and headed for his strangely shaped boat, but he stopped abruptly when someone called his nickname.

"Hawk-Eyes!"

Luffy looked at Don Krieg and narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Did you come all the way out here for my head? The head of the infamous ruler of East Blue, 'Don Krieg'?!" he taunted the swordsman, who only looked at him when he finished talking.

"For a while, yes." The neko looked at his face and knew immediately that the swordsman was annoyed. "But I've already enjoyed myself here, and so I'll return back to my nap." He said in a low voice. It was obvious even for a normal person to realize that the man didn't want to do anything to the other—not because he was scared, that was basically impossible, but because he knew that the fight would be meaningless and he would gain absolutely nothing from it.

"No need to be so curt. You may have had your fun, but I sure haven't!" he yelled. Luffy stood up, also annoyed by the heavily armored pirate clad in shining metal. The pirates from his crew stuttered their opinions and reasons to their captain as to why they shouldn't go against a man like him and that he should just go back to his original napping place, but he completely ignored them, "HOW ABOUT YOU DIE BEFORE LEAVING!?"

Luffy felt absolutely no need to retreat from the attack that Don Krieg was about to do, which was simply the fact that pieces of his armor opened up like before to reveal various guns, but he did feel the strength that Mihawk was about to propose, so he gladly scooted away from the swordsman and watched from a bit of a distance, and before Don Krieg could even commence to fire, the ship exploded, Mihawk's voice barely audible. "You never learn, do you? Farewell."

The destroyed galleon was simply turned into a mountain of broken wood, only few large chunks of surviving pieces successfully floating above the water high enough for one to feel safe walking on. Luffy stretched his arms towards the restaurant and latched himself on the railing in front of the chefs, startling them. He turned to Usopp and yelled, "Usopp! Go on ahead!"

"Alright!" Usopp got the boat moving and returned outside, "Zoro and I'll definitely bring back Nami! So you make sure to get us a cook! Once we have five people in our crew, let's head to Grand Line!" he finished.

Luffy smiled broadly and quirked his eyebrow slightly, a sign of amusement across his face, "Yeah!"

Still on the rails, Sanji approached him but didn't look at him, rather, behind him. "They're finally coming." He said, taking out the cigarette in his mouth to blow out smoke and placed it back in. "Damn pests."

Luffy set his hand on top of his hat and smiled, but his face showed pure 'fight', "Hey old man!" Zeff looked at him with his arms crossed, "If I chase them away for you, will you let me off the hook?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

Zeff stared at him for a moment and sighed, "Do as you wish."

Luffy watched as Don Krieg spoke with his crewmates, glaring at him when he shot one of them with one of his double pistols. The other members had obviously been frightened, telling by their smell and the yellow gas in the air, so he strained his cat ears from underneath his hat to get a better hear on what they were conversing about, and later found out that Don Krieg was telling them about the devil fruit users of Grand Line, mentioning that that place was full of them, which, of course, excited Luffy.

He stopped listening, thinking about what he had heard a second ago. He knew there was no need to think about it because he was strong enough to fight for himself and he knew Zoro was capable too (according to Luffy), but he was more concerned about the safety of Usopp and Nami. They were weaker and they didn't have any sort of advantage in fights.

The neko sighed and shook his head, replacing his thoughtful expression with a happy-go-lucky one, feeling even more excited knowing that there would be strong opponents in the future.

He shot his head back to the fleet and smiled wide when he saw the cheering pirates, waving their swords and fists in the air. "Woah! They're all fired up to fight too!" he said, swinging on the railing of the restaurant. Thinking, he figured that they were just as excited to fight other Devil Fruit users as well. "Hey, old man!" he looked back at Zeff, his grin still existent on his face. "It's a promise, right?"

Zeff looked at him now annoyed, probably because the jaguar had asked him that for the umpteenth time. "You don't have to ask me again. Just don't harm my restaurant."

Luffy nodded. Sanji looked at another chef and asked about Patty and Carne, and was told that they were busy with the battle preparations. The blonde chef sighed, "Only in times like these… you better go to the control room and open up the 'fins'."

Fins? Luffy thought. Immediately, fish parts appeared in his head.

"Wha… you sure? That'll just give our enemies a foothold!" the chef said.

"Doesn't matter." Sanji replied without a care in the world. Judging from his smell and expression, he was actually feeling worried and stressed. Luffy admired the way he hid his emotions so well. Only few people could do that. "The geezer won't shut up if we fight inside the restaurant."

"You say something brat?" Zeff scowled.

Sanji pulled the corner of his mouth with an annoyed look, "Yeah, I said you won't shut up." The chef Sanji was talking with before quickly scurried away from the pair and headed to another part of the building, most likely trying to unlock the 'fins'.

"HAND THAT SHIP TO US, YOU PATHETIC COOKS!" The pirates growled, and Luffy immediately reacted.

His ears perked high from underneath his hat as if weights had landed on a trampoline from high in the sky, the aftermath like a bomb setting off. He smirked and his fangs shined, he ran into the restaurant with his hands still on the rails, preparing to launch himself closer to them. Once far enough and measuring the distance correctly, he laughed, "Let's get things started! Gomu Gomu no… Rocket!" his body was immediately launched towards the fleet of sword-wielding pirates, and once close enough, he spread his limbs apart, like a flying squirrel. "Followed by…" he ducked his head down and spread his arms further apart from his body, "Scythe!"

All the pirates in his range were caught in his scythe formed arms, which managed to get the vast majority to fall in the ocean.

His body continued to soar in the sky, so he caught himself on a wrecked pole mast like a koala, in front of him Don Krieg stood tall, grinning. "I'll send ungrateful crooks like you flying!" Luffy said, growling.

Krieg laughed loud enough for everyone to hear and once calm, he continued the conversation, "Planning on fighting here where you can't even stand properly?" Luffy looked at his surroundings, seeing a few places here and there where he could fight, "I've heard that devil fruit users are weak against the sea. Is that right, hammer boy?"

Luffy tuck his tongue out, "I can't swim, but in return, I can stretch!"

After the neko had said that, a loud, machine-like noise broken the oceanic silence; gears and metal cracking, everyone looked towards the direction of the sound, watching the head of the ship twist and turn in various places, mainly the end and its sides. Voices could be heard from inside the machine—which sounded a lot like Patty's and Carne's, but Luffy couldn't see them.

"Baratie's naval weapon! 'Sabagashira number one'!" (*Note: 'sabagashira' means mackerel head*) It sounded like Patty.

"If you don't want to die, then get the hell out of our way!" And this one sounded like Carne.

The head continued to shift and turn, making gear noises as it struggled to escape its socket—the restaurant. "Damn that's cool!" Luffy said, awing at the machine.

Once the head was out, a small, fat body was attached to the fish, giving it the appearance of a submarine in the shape of a white pudgy fish. From afar, Luffy couldn't really hear what the voices were saying, but he could tell that the two were fighting. Getting a closer look, he saw two figures inside the fish, a glass pane allowing everyone see them.

The fish-boat turned towards the direction of the pirates still on the ship, its gaping mouth revealing three large cannons pointed straight at them. The pirates yelled in shock as they tried to run away, but the cannons were fired before they could evade.

Somehow, Luffy had survived the attack, still latched onto his pole in front of Don Krieg. Further away—somewhere on the ship—he could hear the one who was talking to Sanji before yell out loudly, hurting his sensitive ears, "Opening the 'fins'!

More gears and clockwork starting once he had said that, but the neko gasped when he realized that he was slowly slipping from the pole he was on. "I'm sinking!" he scratched and clawed at the broken mast pole, keeping himself on it with more security.

The machine-like sounds continued and soon enough, a wide and large platform-shaped figure appeared from underneath the ocean, water cascading from it. Once the water had dried up or had gone back to the ocean, a wooden platform appeared, connecting to the entrance of the ship perfectly with a loud click.

Once again, the neko awed at the machinery, finding every movement fascinating. "I see… they don't want us fighting inside and destroying the restaurant. All the better for us when we take that ship. Now I want that ship even more!" Don Krieg claimed, a sick and ugly grin on his face.

All the chefs stomped one foot forward, holing their previous weapons as the pirates jumped out of the water and onto the platform. "Just what the hell can a couple of measly cooks go against pirates?" the enemies charged, smirking wildly.

"Don't you dare look down on us cooks of the sea!" they charged as well, their large forks and knives pointed towards the pirates with swords pointed back at them.

The figurehead of the ship (now turned into a boat), changed its direction and its cannons faced the armored blanketed pirate captain. Now close enough, Luffy could hear them clearly. "Prepare yourself, Krieg! Allow us to demonstrate the power of Baratie's pride!" They fired the triple cannons, smoke invading the once clear spot that the pirate captain stood on. Luckily, Luffy was still far enough so he wasn't caught in the explosion. "Become soup for the fishies!"

The neko stared at the ship, going closer and closer to where Don Krieg was. But, it suddenly stopped. It was no wonder. There was no extra blood nor burnt body odors that stung his nose, but instead he just smelled gunpowder and metal. Unscathed metal. His eyes dilated as he stared at in front of the ship—which was now docked next to the sinking floorboards. The smoke slowly began to clear, but his eyes caught sight of a golden shimmer. His eyes returned to their normal size when he saw the man, completely unharmed.

Don Krieg held one of the cannons inside of the boat's mouth, surprising everyone who had seen the event. "I'm Don Krieg. The man who'll rule all the world's oceans." He said, glaring at the machine.

Luffy snarled at the claim and latched onto the pole even tighter. "Hey, that'll be me!" he yelled at him, but he didn't seem to listen.

"I AIN'T GOT TIME TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE LIKES OF YOU!" he continued with his rant and threw the large ship towards the Baratie, aiming to kill off the chefs, not caring for his own members.

Luffy stared at the flying fish and though for sure the restaurant was going to be wrecked, but he didn't expect Sanji to jump to the fish's level and kick it, sending it to a different direction. The chefs stuttered out the blonde's name, surprised by the quick action while Don Krieg was surprised that he had kicked it. The boat crashed onto another part of the platform, away from the chefs and walked towards the large group of fighting people, who had now stopped by the show of leg power.

He heard Don Krieg mention something about the kicking technique he had shown to everyone, but he didn't want to pay any attention to him for now. "Not bad!" He complemented, but he doubted the chef had even heard him. Now, he definitely wanted him in his crew. He was a chef and he seemed cool and strong. The jaguar definitely wanted him.

Patty and Carne scurried out of the boat, blaming Sanji for almost killing them—which he didn't really care about. After Carne had claimed that he had almost lost two powerful fighters, the pirates laughed as they dumped the last of the fighting chefs onto the floor, bloodied and bruised badly.

"Don't compare us to other pirates you've crossed before! We're pirates of Don Krieg, the ruler of East Blue." The pirates said.

"Shit… these guys are strong…" A chef resting on his knee said, snarling.

"They're nothing like the other pirates that we've been able to beat before." Another one mentioned.

Patty and Carne stepped in front of Sanji, yelling out that they were fighting chefs and that they fought and cook for a living, fueling the pirates killing intent even more since they charged again.

Patty and Carne stood tall, waiting for the pirates to get close enough and once they did, they attacked crazily, swinging their large fork (Patty) and large knife (Carne) in a manner that would seem like swinging with absolutely no control, but from what Luffy could tell, they were coordinating very well, bringing down practically every single pirate in their sights and range.

But what had really gotten Luffy's attention was the shield-like plate slowly getting closer towards the fighting group in the water, snaking towards two specific people. The plate hauled itself out of the water and Luffy was surprised that underneath the plate was a sandwiched human; a shield on his stomach as well. He said something that Luffy didn't catch but he knew he was an enemy the second he crushed Patty and Carne with the same-looking plates on each of his hands, resting on his knuckles.

The stranger started to laugh as he revealed his 'Iron Wall', which, getting a better look at, was made of both iron and pearls, which made sense since the rest of the conscious pirates called him 'Pearl'.

The other chefs checked on the two fallen fighters, their heads bleeding.

"You won't be standing after my lethal punch! You just got a good taste of my special 'Pearl Present'!"

Completely ignoring the newcomer, Luffy watched as a pirate attempted to take away a sharpened knife from Patty, Sanji walking over to him with an angered smell so strong it almost made Luffy slip from his pole like a weight.

Sanji leaped towards the pirate and kicked him on his jaw, blood escaping the man's mouth, being sent flying like a lifeless body. The pirate crashed onto his crewmembers, but because of the force of the kick, the group of pirates were sent flying as well, finally stopping when the last of the group impacted on the wall of the pirate, Pearl, who just huffed out in response, uncaring for his crewmembers.

The knife that had been in the pirate's hand before ended up in Sanji's who had caught it with ease when it was falling towards the ground. The blonde held up the knife in front of him, and in a loud and clear voice that even Luffy could hear without straining his ears, he said, "A kitchen knife is the soul of a cook. It's not something like an amateur like you should even think about touching."

Luffy smiled, now knowing that the man he wanted to join his crew was strong and had a pride: cooking. He mused to himself for a moment, wondering what everyone else had pride in. Zoro's pride was in his swordsmanship, seeing the event unfurl with Mihawk and how he was almost killed because according to him, a scar on the back was a swordsman's shame; but he didn't really know what Nami's was nor Usopp's.

As he finished his thoughts, he watched as the knife was given back to Patty and how the pirates had recklessly ran towards Sanji with swords and axes and bludgeons and maces, all kicked away by the masterful feet of the blonde chef, who landed on his hands and supported his body with them, twisting his hips and legs and slight movements of his hand in such a way that he was like a lethal spinning top, knocking out his opponents with mastered kicks. Each pirate had gotten hit in the face and because of the chef's speed, when he landed back onto his feet with a swift flip and kicking once more, the pirates were sent flying.

After the small show, Sanji confronted Pearl, who was grinning like a crazed fool. They spoke for a moment, but Luffy's interest was caught when Pearl claimed that he had never spilled even a single drop of blood, but he rambled on after that, somehow ending in his fashion, "And my iron defense has got quite the fashion sense."

Luffy quirked his eyebrow, finding the large man very strange when he had said, 'Ain't I stylish?'

His ears perked from underneath his hat when he heard heavy but short footsteps, knowing that he was currently being targeted by the person behind him. "Straw hat! You'll get hurt if you look away in a fight!"

Luffy unlatched himself from the broken mast pole, perfectly dodging the giant ball of spikes that crashed onto the pole. The wooden mast snapped and was sent flying in the direction of Sanji and the others, so Luffy grabbed onto it in hopes of driving it somewhere else, but found nowhere else to throw it, so he resorted to throwing it in front of him. He saw how strong Sanji was, so he was sure that the chef would be able to crush the pole into splinters.

He brought the pole forward, causing him to slip a little lower. Nearing the floor, he saw Sanji kick the iron clad pirate who effectively defended against it with another shield on his arm, right in front of his face.

Luffy realized that because of the size comparison of Sanji and Pearl, the pearl guy was definitely going to be the one that was going to get hit, and instantly, his body slipped completely and he crashed on the nape of the defending pirate, wincing from surprise. He had closed his eyes for a second but the second he opened them, he saw the mast quickly closing the distance, so he cried in shock and jumped off his landing, the pole landing on the top of the head instead of the nape.

After the impact, the pole slowly slid off Pearl's head and slipped into the ocean, its existence now non-existent.

Luffy landed next to Sanji and huffed out in surprise, wiping at his pants from the amount of dust they had collected from the various explosions before. "Whew, that was close. Glad I didn't fall into the ocean." Luffy grinned.

He heard a whimper which had gotten both his and Sanji's attention. They looked at the owner of the noise and noticed the thin trickle of blood coming from his nose and the slightly thicker one coming from his forehead. He touched the blood from his nose and did the same thing with the blood on his head with his other hand. He compared the sizes of the stains on his hand and noticed the amount of blood that was released from his body.

"It's blood!" One of the pirates pointed out.

"Oh shit!" They chorused, an odor of onion invading Luffy's nose.

Luffy looked back at Pearl, whose eyes were constricted into small little dots and expanding like a balloon constantly loosing air, only to be refilled again. His body and face were covered in sweat, sticking his body and causing Luffy to take a small step back because of the smell, hoping nobody mistook it as fear, because he could definitely feel, smell and see the fear coming from every pirate, even Krieg who had a stressed look on his face, as if a disaster was about to occur and he had no control over it.

The blood had dried into crisp cracks, like desert mountains that are dry and desolate. As the pirate continued to stare at his hand, ragged pants came out of his mouth, shocking Luffy and Sanji for a second, unsure what they had done wrong.

But, Luffy only had to see him once to know that he had done something that he should've avoided from the beginning.

"Blood…" his voice was shaky, his body trembling. The pirates scrambled around on the fins of the restaurant, many trying to calm down their pirate comrade. The beaten chefs stared bewildered at the sight before them, unable to comprehend what they were seeing—the same for both Luffy and Sanji. One moment, the pirates were blood-craving monsters that were far too powerful for the sea chefs, but the next, they became pirates that trembled at the sight of a pirate bleeding.

At first, it appeared to seem like that the pirates had not once seen one of their crewmembers bleed before (which would make sense since they called themselves unbeatable), but the words that they used dismissed the idea. They seemed to be attempting to calm down the large pirate, as if it would be the end of the world if he bled.

"My… iron wall was broken through…" his voice was incredibly shaky, his whole body was covered in so much sweat that Luffy had to resist covering his nose from the bad smell. "These guys are dangerous…!" His voice was low but loud, startling almost everyone besides Luffy and only confusing Sanji.

Sanji wore a flustered look, his curled eyebrow quirked questioningly and a tug on his mouth that made him look like he was frowning—perhaps from confusion. "The hell's up with him?"

The raven haired boy picked his nose and stared blankly at the pirate, confusion once again setting upon his shoulders. "All he got was a nosebleed and a small cut." Luffy said, observing the wound on his head, seeing only a small cut visible from behind the blood.

"Pearl!" Luffy looked behind the large pirate, seeing Don Krieg standing tall on the broken decks of his ship. "Stop it! There's no need to go wild over small amounts of damn blood! This ain't the jungle!" Luffy briefly wondered what he meant when he said that it wasn't the jungle, but his attention was caught again when said pirate began to bang the shields on his hands together, like a cymbal banging monkey, screaming 'I'm in danger!' over and over again.

The pirates once again attempted to calm down the pirate, but when he didn't respond back, he stopped banging his shields and held his arms wide apart, his whole body exposed for any attack, that is until…

"DANGER!"

His whole body was set on fire when he said that word, confusing and shocking everyone who hadn't known Pearl before and frightening the pirates that did (the only one not frightened but not necessarily shocked was Don Krieg).

"Fire?!" a chef screamed out, many tumbling behind them to get away from the sudden flames.

"Crap! He's doing that thing he learned to do while growing in the jungle! Back in the jungle full of wild beasts, every time Pearl felt that he was in danger, he has a habit of lighting fire!" a pirate yelled out, as if he had read Luffy's mind before and decided that now was the time to say the answer.

"What?!" The chefs stared at the flaming figure, unsure of what to do against such a menace, "It's his defense tactic against beasts?!"

"Don't you dare get close to me!" his voice wasn't too frightened anymore, but now it sounded charred and burnt, the constant cackling of the bright orange flames heated the air and adding that effect to his voice. "Fire Pearl's… Daitokuten (special treat)!" Flaming pearls flew at Luffy and Sanji, one managing to burn Luffy's side when he did a back flip—Sanji effectively dodging them when he jumped high in his spot.

The burning pearls that passed the two managed to make contact with either wood or skin, charring what they touched. Luffy's nostrils now filled with smoke coughed lightly, not used to the smoke-filled air. Before long, he realized that his backside felt hotter than usual, and when he looked, he noticed that a large flame had rested on his back, burning his shirt and the rim of his pants.

"Ahh!" he yelped and jumped in the air from temporary shock. When he landed, he ran around for a minute, trying to dispel the flame that oh so happily decided to burn his shirt. After some time, the flame burned out and he looked at the damage of his shirt, sighing when he only caught a small, barely noticeable glimpse of his black tail.

The fin they were on was set aflame, large chunks of the wood charred from the heavy burns. Pirates and chefs alike jumped into the water, unable to bear the heat any longer. Flames surrounded Luffy and Sanji, this time the neko was a bit more wary around the fire. Instead, Sanji charged towards Pearl, "That bastard…" he jumped in the air and flipped his body so that his head was facing the ground, but his legs were bent in a way that if they kicked, it would cause so much damage. "Don't you dare burn this restaurant down!" he kicked but it was blocked by one of the burning shields on Pearl's hand.

He jumped back and landed in front of Pearl, the flames now connected walls around the two fighters. "H-How could you attack me, the Fire Pearl that wild beasts won't even approach…?" He asked, his voice once again shaking from terror.

Sanji smirked and pulled out the cigarette in his mouth towards Pearl, blowing out the smoke inside his mouth and nose, "Idiot." His pose was lazy, almost slouched, but that could've been because of the smoke and fire that somewhat distorted his stance, "How could a chef ever cook if he was afraid of fire?"

Pearl's fire burned even stronger as he prepared to punch Sanji with his flaming shields, "D-Damn you! Why you dandy son of a…!" he lunged forward but his shields connected with nothing.

Sanji forced his body forward, causing him to stand on his hands. He kicked backwards with one leg, his arms bent and his leg connecting to the pirate's face. He kicked back—causing Pearl to fall onto the fins with a bad wound on his face—and landed on his feet, his body in a crouching position when he landed. Sanji grinned as the smoke from his cigarette added more to the polluted air.

"My… My face…!" Pearl screamed, covering his face that now had dirt and splinters on it, his nose bleeding once more, "Danger! He's too dangerous! More fire! More fire pearls!" as said, he shot out flaming pearls, but this time they passed above Sanji and headed towards Zeff, who stood watching the whole fight from the entrance of the restaurant.

"He's planning to burn down the restaurant! This place is goners if the fire spreads to the kitchen!" A chef said.

Another spoke up, this time noticing that Zeff was standing right in the aim of the burning pearls, "Sir! Run away!"

Zeff stared hard at the pearls before swinging his leg near the bullets, burning out the flame from the wind that he had created from his kick, which also stopped the pearls themselves since they landed on the floor with loud clonks and clinks. "I may have lost one leg, but this much is nothing I can't handle."

"W-What?" Pearl stuttered out, taking a step back.

"That's incredible, sir!"

"He put out the fire with the wind blast he created from his kick!"

"Holy crap! Maybe Red-Leg Zeff's still got it…?" the pirates yelled.

Luffy grinned at the small show with eyes filled with awe, "Old man that was amazing!" he complemented, but he still hadn't let his guard down. His ear instinctively faced towards Don Krieg's direction when he heard a soft clanking noise, recognizing it as the same ball of spikes he had dodged from before.

"That idiot Pearl's more trouble than he's worth! Before that fire spreads to the rest of the restaurant, I'll sink those 'fins'!" Don Krieg said, swinging the ball of spikes down onto the fins towards Sanji and pearl, causing them to stop in their tracks.

"Sanji, watch out!" A chef warned the blonde.

"It's no good! He's surrounded by flames!" another said, seemingly already lost hope for one of their strongest fighters.

Luffy charged towards the wall of flames that surrounded the blonde chef, curling his body and punching the fire so that he could possible pass through it with minimal burns possible. "Hot!" he jumped in front of Sanji midair and stretched his arms behind Sanji's sides, "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" his fists swung forward, punching the giant ball of iron and spikes and successfully sending it into the air, which finally crashed onto another mast pole of the damaged used-to-be galleon.

He landed but immediately started to squirm, patting his bum and backside in an attempt to burn out the flames that fed on the clothes he wore. "Hot hot hot hot!"

Sanji stared at Luffy's backside, eyeing were his loin would be. He squinted his eyes, getting a better look at what had gotten his attention. Something… fuzzy? He shook his head and looked at what he thought he was imagining, but it was still there. Something black, something fuzzy, and something that definitely shouldn't be there. But, before he could examine any more, Luffy pulled his shorts up enough that it seemed to cover what he had seen.

Perhaps he really hadn't imagined it.

But it could also be because he had smoked a bit too much in his lifetime. Maybe now it was starting to have an effect on him?

No way, impossible. It must've been because of the idiots he was surrounded by every single day.

The mast that had been impacted from Don Krieg's spiked ball snapped and quickly descended towards he trio.

Luffy rolled away while Sanji jumped away, not anticipating that the mast was going to fall towards them as quickly as it had. The only one who hadn't dodged was Pearl, who, because of his position, couldn't see the pole falling right towards him. Before they knew it, there was a loud sound, a combination of snapping and cracking. The two looked at Pearl with wide eyes, still surprised, and saw the state the enemy pirate was in when the mast had slid off his head, which was now more like a spring—various layers of his neck stacked on each other, obviously squished.

After a moment of shock from the pirates in his crew, Pearl fell back on top of the broken mast, his neck springing back to normal when he landed.

Luffy and Sanji stood up and looked at the fallen pirate, now calmer and even appeared unchanging in terms of facial expressions. "What's up with this dude?" Sanji said, blowing out smoke. Although from outside he had a convincing mask of normality, he still couldn't get his mind off the fuzz he saw on the young pirate's back. He thought hard about it, but at the same time he knew he would be in possible danger if he didn't pay enough attention.

"Maybe he's mentally ill…?" Luffy spoke out his thoughts, although they didn't seem to be very likely.

Luffy smelled gunpowder when he stood still for a second, a short clicking sound breaking the silence of the battlefield. He snapped his head behind him and when Sanji noticed the action, he turned around as well, but he was far more surprised.

"Please stop fighting, Sanji."

Gin had kicked down Zeff and had broken the peg leg that the ex-pirate definitely needed for any sort of movement that involved walking. He pulled out a wooden barrel pistol aimed directly at Zeff's head, the chef sweating from anger and frustration. "I don't want to end up killing you."

"Gin!" Luffy was shocked. He had smelled no intent from anywhere, the only exceptions were the enemy pirates that were currently all in the water and Krieg, but his smell lingered far away from where they were—he had no clue how he had gotten behind Zeff without giving off any sign, perhaps that was the same reason as to why Zeff was so easily disabled. At least there should've been at least a whiff but not even that was shown.

Sanji bit on his cigarette, looking as if he was about to bite right through it, but he managed to control his jaws, "Gin, you…!" His voice was low, but it was obvious that he was close to yelling.

The flames cackled behind them, as if mocking them for letting such a thing slip by while they were so focused on something that couldn't even scratch them.

"No matter how great of a man he may have been in the past, he's just another cook that I can easily kill at gunpoint now." Gin said, his leg positioned on Zeff's back.

The chefs cursed at Gin, Patty and Carne being the main ones who bad-mouthed him the most, while the others attempted to get a word from their boss, wanting to make sure he was okay so they wouldn't have to worry as much.

The jaguar snarled at commenced to walk closer to Gin, twisting his arm around as if he were ready to punch him, "That's it, I'm gonna send him flying!" he was mad. He was angry. He wanted to beat the pirate that had betrayed the person that had so gratefully given him food when he was on the verge of starvation and inevitable death—had it not been for Sanji. But instead, what he saw wasn't a 'thank you' or an 'I owe you one day'. No. it was a threat. The pirate that Sanji had saved now bared sharp fangs that Luffy wanted to make sure would be broken when he was done with him.

Taking another step forward, Sanji shoved his hand in Luffy's way, not allowing the neko to pass any more than he had had. "Wait. Let's see what he has to say first." He had said it calmly, but there was definitely a sound of aggravation in his voice that made it clear to Luffy that he also wanted to hurt him.

"You want to save this man, don't you Sanji?" he shifted the aim of the pistols a bit higher, as if he wanted to point it at Sanji, but it still remained locked on Zeff's head, "Then leave this ship!"

Sanji glared at Gin, growling. Luffy looked at Sanji, his instincts of battle initiation almost activating, but he had realized that it wasn't directed at him, so he rested his stiff pose and looked at Sanji, "Leave this ship? As if!" He scoffed.

The chefs tried to reason with Sanji, telling him not to provoke the pirate any further or else Zeff would be in actual danger, but the blonde ignored him and stared down at the fallen man, an almost sympathetic but bored glare present on his features. "Old man, you're pathetic. That's the kind of example you set when the other cooks are trying to fight?" He asked, his voice growing louder and stronger as he ended his sentence.

Zeff let out an audible scoff, "I don't need to hear that from a little eggplant like you."

At that moment, Luffy could feel something break (or crack?) inside Sanji, the emotions that he had been holding escaping the dam, "Who you calling a little eggplant, you damn geezer?! You can't treat me as a kid forever!" he yelled at Zeff, his eyes narrowed and the cigarette in his mouth almost falling out.

Once again, the chefs tried to calm down their comrade, but as before, Sanji ignored them, "Gin." He said sternly and surprisingly lacking any sort of anger, "Take your gun… and point it at me."

Luffy looked at Sanji and gaped at him, "Are you stupid? You'll die instead."

"Whatever."

"Sanji…? But why…?!" Gin stuttered, softly a look of insecurity in his eyes.

Luffy's ears perked behind where he was looking at, so he instantly looked back at the direction of the unconscious pirate, now seeing that the same person who had been knocked down get up, and in a shaky voice, he started once again, "If you want to die so badly… then I'll kill you nice and flashy!"

Sanji looked back as well, his emotionless glare set on him now, "I'd never have imagined even in my dreams that I, Iron Wall Pearl, would be given a double nosebleed and a cut in a single fight. I see now how dangerous you guys are. Now don't move if you don't want that old man's head to be blown off!"

The large pirate charged towards Sanji, but the chef didn't move, but it didn't seem he was scared. Pearl swung his hand back and shoved it right at Sanji's face, the iron and pearl-made shield causing so much damage to Sanji that from a single hit, blood burst from Sanji's nose and mouth and bringing him down to the floor and crashing him onto the wall of the restaurant.

The neko called out Sanji's name loud enough for everyone to hear, but only meant it for Sanji.

"How dare you tarnish my invincible battle record…" Pearl said, licking off the blood on his lips and nose.

Luffy turned around completely and prepared to throw a punch at Pearl, but before he could do so, Sanji yelled at Luffy with a voice that sounded strangled, a slight gurgling sound from the blood that stayed inside his mouth. "Don't lay a finger on him!"

Luffy looked at him with an anger evident on his face, but it was hard to tell who the ill intent was meant for, "Why didn't you dodge that?!"

Sanji sat back as a heavy shadow was casted over his glaring eyes, an angry frown causing the blood that cascaded down his lips to his chin to look like he had bit himself hard. "'Cause that damn geezer is held at gunpoint by him." He said firmly. There was little aggressiveness in his voice, either he wasn't mad or he didn't want to get a negative reaction from the pirate captain that had asked him a question. The blonde shifted his head a bit to the side—barely noticeable—as a false grin made way to his face, "Gin, you cheap son of a bitch… there's no way I can accept your conditions."

Gin faltered for a moment before he stood tall again, "Why not?" He asked loudly, "It's simple! Just leave the ship and you can spare everyone's lives! All you have to do is leave…"

Sanji turned his head sharply at Gin's direction and growled, "This ship is the geezer's treasure." He said acutely, his eyes narrowed so much that Luffy could imagine those vicious eyes on a neko. He looked down and rested his back on the wall of the restaurant, his body trembling from the pain that coursed through each one of his limbs and neck. "I took everything away from that damn geezer…" The chefs looked questioningly at Sanji, confused at what he was talking about, "His strength! His dreams! Which is why… I don't want to lose him to anything else!"

"Damn pipsqueak… now's not the time to ramble on about ancient history…" Zeff mumbled loud enough for Sanji to hear.

"Shut up!" Sanji yelled at the head chef, "And I told you not to treat me as a damn kid anymore!"

Luffy perked his ears high and quickly changed his attention back to Pearl, who was closing the distance between him and Sanji.

As Pearl spread his shields apart from each other, Luffy pounced in front of him and Sanji. Pearl clamped both his shields together on Luffy, shocking the spectators and Sanji—who had barely turned around to hear the loud impact.

"Hey! Luffy!" He yelled out, looking at the boy dangling from the two weapons on Pearl's hands.

Luffy grabbed both of the shields and pulled them apart from his neck and head, freeing his body, and pushed the pirate further away from himself and the blonde chef. He let out a heavy breath and took in a deep breath, "I couldn't breathe!" he gasped, shaking slightly—although it seemed as though he was faking the pain.

The raven-haired pirate turned around and looked at Sanji with a blank face, Sanji looking back at him with surprised eyes. "What the…?" he said.

"Jeez, pay attention!" Luffy said at Sanji, an annoyed glance sent at the chef's direction, "What if he did that to you? You're not rubber like me!"

"Annoying brat…" Pearl said, the blood on the pearls of his shields stained with blood from before. The pirate jumped towards Sanji again, his shields ready for the impact that could possibly end Sanji's life. Luffy knew that Sanji could see what was heading at him, but he still made no attempt to move, "Service Pearl!" Pearl screeched out his attack.

Luffy looked at Gin, completely discombobulated at what he should do. "This is dirty, Gin!" he yelled at him.

"This is how we fight! This is your fault anyways! All you need is to hand over the ship to us and it'd be all over!" Gin screamed back at him.

Luffy looked back at Pearl, who was still high in the sky but descending too quickly towards Sanji, speaking of which, moved away from the wall but still in Pearl's aim. Luffy immediately guessed why he had done that—so that Pearl wouldn't harm the restaurant.

"Tarnished silver… Present!" Pearl landed on top of Sanji's stomach, blood flying out of the chef's mouth. Shouts and yells of distress sounded from the direction of the chefs, not wanting to see Sanji get beat up so easily—especially when he wasn't even fighting. Pearl laughed manically, "Behold my Iron Wall!"

Sanji laid there for a minute, heavy pants escaping his bloodied mouth and lips. After some time, he punched the floor and slumped his body, positioning himself so that he could get up, albeit it would be slow, "You ate your own leg and gave me all the food… you saved my life…"

"Sanji…" Luffy whispered his name, just as surprised as Pearl when he managed to move and speak.

The blonde chef stood up and grinned, wiping off the blood from his lips with his thumb, "I'm not handing over this restaurant and I won't let you kill the damn geezer either. He's a geezer who gave up everything for the sake of one little brat." Sanji grinned even wider, but he frowned and stood even taller, gripping the tie around his neck, "If I can't even put my life at risk to save him, then I can't ever repay my debt to him!"

"Repay his debt?"

Luffy thought the exact same thing, staring at the blonde chef that he desperately wanted aboard his ship and so desperately wanted to protect. Although a cat, he has the instincts to protect like a loyal dog willing to die for its master. He grew up with that will and blood in his veins, and now the same habit coursed through his body, sending adrenaline throughout his whole body to protect what should be protected.

Sanji was bloodied, panting and looked exhausted. He needed rest, but he stood tall and straightened out his tie, holding onto it like a lifeline and practically choking himself. The flames cackled around them, burning the wood that was quickly charring black.

"Sanji! Don't do any more unnecessary things. I'm not so old and feeble enough yet that I need to be rescued by a little eggplant!" Zeff glared at the young teenager, his mouth contorted into a noticeable unamused frown.

Sanji let out an audible huff and stared at Zeff with a blank face, the side of his head crusted in dry blood. "You're one to talk. If you hadn't given up your leg for my sake, then these guys wouldn't be able to push you around."

The blonde smoker swayed on his feet, his eyes rolled back for a second but they returned back to normal as he balanced himself. A few of the chefs had noticed and voiced out their thoughts about Sanji's current situation, their voices strained and tired from their own exhaustion and wounds. While some worried about the health professional chef, the rest had listened to what said chef had said out loud, gears and puzzle pieces clicking into place as they summed up what they understood, "So owner Zeff gave up his leg to save Sanji?"

"Then the reason why he's stayed here all along…"

"Must've been to repay his debt to owner Zeff." Patty stared at his other rival, eyebrows ascended high and his mouth contorted into a visible frown.

"Never would've imagined that two people who argue with each other all the time would share such a deep relationship." His voice drowned away as he reached the end of his sentence.

Luffy stared at Sanji with a blank face, his worry from before having gone for a minute.

"Why…? Why do you still stand up, Sanji?" Gin's face contorted into anger, his upper lip curled up into a snarl. Sweat continued to drip from his face, so Luffy assumed he was still worried for the chef.

His voice was completely ignored or nobody had heard it. He had said it quite soft after all, but Sanji had a shine of acknowledgement pass through his eyes for a split second, so the neko guessed on both evidence and smell that the blonde chef had indeed noticed the words that the enemy pirate had said.

Pearl, now laughing incoherent words, spread his arms apart that it would be a perfect opportunity to attack, but it seemed to the raven that Sanji had other plans. "Still haven't had enough of my Pearl Presents? You ain't got a chance of winning!" The laughter from the pirate died down as a sick smug look was painted onto his face, "The final result is all that matters in this world." His voice shook with fascination, disgusting Luffy to see that someone could find such amusement in destroying the will and body of others. Despite this, he kept silent, his expression unwavering. "If you lose, then you're a loser! No other way about it! It doesn't matter if you take hostages! The last man standing is the victor!" He turned around and faced his captain, "Isn't that right, Krieg!?"

Don Krieg had a dead expression. The only thing that gave away the fact of any other emotion was his frown and narrowed eyes, impatient of finally being able to start a fight.

"Exactly." He said lowly.

Pearl turned to Gin and repeated the same question, a grin on his face. When the other pirate didn't respond, his face grew smug again, waving a hand in front of his face as if fanning himself with the shield of iron. "Guess it's not even necessary to ask. You are the one holding him hostage after all." He turned to Sanji, "In any case, you'll lose without laying even a finger on us in the end." His calm demeanor changed drastically, but his smile stayed plastered on his face, "SO WHY DO YOU STILL STAND!? YOU'LL ONLY BE BEATEN TO A BLOODLY PULP IF YOU DO!"

Sanji stared at Pearl for many tense and silent seconds, eyeing him like an eagle. "I want to preserve this restaurant," he started, smirking much like a green-haired swordsman Luffy knew, "if even just one second longer."

Luffy stared at the chef as the other chefs from the restaurant, mainly Patty, yelled at him for attempting such suicide. The neko turned and watched Zeff, curious of what he would do, but the head chef muttered out a few words that clearly showed how frustrated the boss was. Gin had the same expression as the former pirate, but he stayed silent, seemingly unsure of what he was doing.

Pearl started laughing again, "Well, well… ain't that a flashy last stand? But the time to close up this restaurant is now at hand! From now on, it'll be a pirate ship!" he halted his short chuckles and said without warning, "Doubly-certain Pearl…"

Even if Sanji had reacted early enough, he still wouldn't have moved, but his eyes did widen considerably, unsuspecting of the attack.

"Present!" Pearl lunged at Sanji, punching the chef with the shield and sending him to the railing of the restaurant. Luffy bit his bottom lip and eyed the ground, feeling somewhat guilty that he was allowing this to happen to someone he had grown a relationship to.

Sanji grunted in pain, the rest of the chefs calling out to him while others noticed how dangerously close the fire was to them, one yelling out in discomfort when a growing flame had burned him.

"The restaurant's going to burn down for sure this time!"

Luffy frowned.

"H-Hey! We gotta put out the fire or there'll be no point in taking over this ship!"

"I'm trying but the fire's too big!"

"Feel free to fight back if you want! That is, as long as you don't mind letting the old man die!" Pearl yelled at Sanji in pure glee.

Luffy's frown deepened.

He glanced at Sanji.

A look of distress and grief and horror and exhaustion, but not enough to cover the guilt that was so very visible on the chef.

A click caught his attention.

He looked at the pistol that Gin held, pointing right above Zeff's head as he bowed down, the head chef not daring to look at his precious restaurant.

'I'd like to see you fight me without getting hurt!'

'Don't you dare burn this restaurant down!'

'Leave this ship? As if.'

'This ship is the Geezer's treasure!'

'I DON'T WANT HIM TO LOSE ANYTHING ELSE!'

Luffy snarled softly, but it was rapidly growing louder and louder the more he thought about these memories.

'You saved my life…'

'I'm not handing over this restaurant.'

'He's a geezer who gave up everything for the sake of one little brat.'

'If I can't even put my life at risk to save him, THEN I CAN NEVER REPAY MY DEBT TO HIM!'

Luffy's fist clenched tighter and tighter, his breaths became ragged as he lowered his head even lower than before.

He felt light again, and this time, he wasn't sure what it was he wanted to do.

'I want to preserve this restaurant, if even just one second longer.'

A loud gurgle escaped Luffy's lips, turning into a deafening scream that was near animalistic. Everyone turned their attention to the teenager, eyes filled with terror by the inhuman shriek.

The neko raised his leg high up with enough force to send it flying higher and higher in the air—his screams unwavering but causing everyone else to take a step back. His leg continued to fly high in the sky, turning out that he had used so much power and force in his kick that it caused his body to fly in midair as his leg rose.

The flames and wood and people and ocean that used to be visible was now blurred, the nekos senses switching from kill to resist. He was leaning towards killing, but thinking about spilling enough blood to stop the movement of another human being seized him from going any further. The red he saw a few seconds prior faltered to a weak pink, allowing sight once again. He could hear the clicks of switches similar to a light switch turn on and off in his brain, thoughts and rational thinking now accessible through his mind.

He growled.

Sighed.

But scowled angrily.

"Gomu Gomu no…" the destruction was going to be amusing, "Axe!"

He brought his leg down at rapid speeds, only stopping when it hit the wooden 'fins' of the ship. The wood split and fractured, appearing as if an earthquake had destroyed that only section. Large chunks of wood and planks split apart, splinters shooting in every direction as if they were being fired by guns and cannons. The impact caused many pirates to go flying in the air, landing on the shaky and crashing waves of the polluted sea.

The chefs managed to stay onboard a large chunk of wood that provided enough space for them to move around with enough space.

The flames that burned the wood before was put out now, but the fin itself was completely separated from the actual building.

Luffy landed safely, the veins in his arms pulsing with adrenaline and the muscles in his body aching with anticipation, ready for more action. A scowl etched onto his lips, his head still low and his spine arched—his hand resting on his knee and his other pulled into a fist that was placed on the floor.

There was an eerie silence for a moment, the sounds of the waves and splitting wood only disturbing that silence every few seconds.

"The 'fins' have been broken!" someone said, but Luffy was unsure if it was a chef or a pirate.

"That little brat." Somehow, with the snapping of wood still sounding in his ears, he could hear the other captain's words, "Gin! Just blow that damn geezer's head off!"

Luffy got up and turned to look at Gin, an innocent look replacing his previous angry one, "Hey," He called out to Gin, successfully getting his attention, "I haven't laid a single finger on you guys at all. All I did was break the fins."

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" Sanji yelled at the neko, not surprising Luffy in the least.

Instead, Luffy's eyebrows quirked lower, somehow not making him look angry at all, but his lips showed no sign of glee. "I'll sink this ship." He said calmly.

"Wha—"

"What?!"

"What did he just say?!"

A few chefs had ended up in the water at first, but the ones who had been spared from falling into it had deemed it safer to stay in the water than to be on the same platform as the ones fighting.

"He's gonna sink this ship?!"

"OH HELL NO!" the chefs chorused, splashing and punching the water.

"THIS SHIP IS OURS! DON'T YOU DARE!" the pirates mirrored the same movements as the chefs.

"Gin!" Don Krieg called again, a bit of sweat running down his face, clearly worried that the pirate would ruin his whole plan on returning to the Grand Line again, "Don't just stand there! Kill Zeff already!"

Sanji lunged at Luffy and grabbed his shoulder, the rapid movement causing more blood to cascade down the crusted underneath. "Are you out of your mind?! Just what the hell do you think I've been working for in this restaurant?!

Luffy gripped his own arm and clenched his hand, an innocent look plastered on his face when he looked at Sanji, "But if the ship's destroyed, their plans will be ruined."

"You have no idea what this restaurant means to me nor the gravity of my debt!" Sanji argued.

Luffy scoffed and slapped Sanji's hand away from his shoulder, an angry look present on his expression, "So you're planning to die for this restaurant? What are you? Stupid?!"

"What?!"

Instead of feeling lighter, he felt a billion times heavier, causing him grave discomfort, but he ignored the sensation and much the same way as the chef, he lunged at him and grabbed him by the collar, baring his sharp canines and his eyes narrowed to the point where they had begun to turn red, "YOU WON'T BE REPAYING ANY DEBT BY DYING!" Luffy bared his teeth some more and eased his eyes a bit, but it was narrowed enough to frighten anyone else. "That's not what he saved you for!" A flash of Shanks appeared in his mind, blood pouring out of his missing limb, but it vanished as quickly as it had come, "To throw away your life and die like this after being saved… that's what a weakling does!"

Sanji was shocked for a second, but he shook his head and grabbed the collar of Luffy's hoodie, pulling the neko closer to himself, "Well, it's not like you know of a better way out of this mess!"

They stared into each other's dark eyes, trying to fight by stares. Before they could continue any further, Pearl had walked in front of them and spread his arms apart, "Now, now. Stop the fighting, you two. It's just your bad fortune to have gone up against the Krieg Pirates. You picked the wrong enemies." He grinned, "There's nothing you can do against us. As long as we have a hostage, that is! I'll burn you to death with my fire pearls!" the shields on Pearl's hands set on fire as he charged at both Sanji and Luffy, who had let go of each other but were still too slow to try to evade.

Luffy's ears perked high underneath his hat when he heard a metallic clanking sound, clinking a few times before it stopped. The neko was about to turn around but felt a rush of wind pass in front of him as fast as Zoro with his swords. Looking in front of him to where he felt the wind go past him, he saw Gin standing next to Pearl, his arms outstretched, each one holding a tonfa tipped with iron balls.

For a second, nothing had happened and Pearl stood there shocked, and in the next, the giant iron shield that protected most of Pearl's body shattered and broken into a million pieces. The large pirate gasped as his eyes rolled back into his head, not having expected the powerful impact, but he couldn't be blamed since neither Luffy nor Sanji had expected it.

"Gin?!" They chorused, surprised by his sudden appearance and strength.

"Sorry Pearl, but I need you to get out of my way for a little while." Gin said, unwavering. Pearl stuttered out few words, asking why he had done this, but collapsed before he could say anymore, blood exploding from his mouth like a firework.

"G-Gin!" a pirate shouted. "Why did you attack Pearl?!" He sounded scared.

"GIN! YOU DARE BETRAY ME?!" Don Krieg yelled, looking ready to attack the second strongest pirate of the crew.

Said pirate turned to face his captain and after staring for a while, he bowed his head and sighed, "My apologies, Don Krieg… but please allow me… to put an end to our saviors with my own two hands."

From behind them, Luffy looked at Zeff, behind him stood Patty and Carne, who had most likely just climbed out of the water and gone to the head chef when they had the chance. Patty stared at the unconscious pirate and gaped at the sight, "H-He just shattered the shield of the guy who said he could even withstand a cannonball!"

"So he's not just some minor underling…" Carne concluded.

Luffy let out a lone huff of laughter and grinned, crossing his arms as sweat dripped from his forehead, "There, see? Things worked out pretty well, didn't it?" he looked slightly down—barely noticeable—and murmured underneath his breath, "My decoy strategy worked."

Sanji had his hands stuffed into his pockets, knowing already that what the straw hat kid had just said was obviously a lie, "Shut up, you liar! Your strategy was to destroy this ship!"

Gin turned around to look at Sanji and Luffy, his arms limp but ready to strike at any moment, "Sanji, I wanted you to leave this ship without hurting you, but it seems things can't be that way."

Sanji stood tall and fixed his suit, "No, they can't."

"So then the least I could do is kill you myself. That's the solution I've arrived at."

The chef chuckled and lit a new cigarette, his eyes closed, "Why, thank you. Now kindly eat shit and die."

Gin ignored the insult and looked at Luffy, "You too, Straw Hat. It would've been best for you to leave with your crewmates earlier."

The neko stared at him and replied, "Nah, it's not as if I could ever be beaten by weaklings like you."

Gin stared at him with a serious expression, threatening to kill the neko if he ever repeated that same line. The other pirates each showed their shock in various displays, finally saying what it was that had caught them off guard, "T-They just called us weaklings and told our commander off! We're the Krieg Pirates, the strongest crew in all of East Blue!"

Luffy thought about it for a second, processing past information with the new, and finally came to a conclusion. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and glanced at the pirates staying afloat above the salty water, "Weren't you guys just the biggest pirate crew?" he asked.

The pirates jumped noticeably in the water, many realizing their mix-up. Each one had a face of depression, realizing that what Luffy had said was indeed the correct term for their crew.

"Right on target, huh." Sanji blew out some smoke.

"Guess I was right." The raven looked at Sanji with big eyes, adjusting his breathing patterns to avoid breathing in too much smoke.

The chefs on the other hand had different thoughts about the current event, realizing that provoking the pirates any further would most likely cause more destruction and death. "You idiot! Don't provoke them anymore!"

"You're still up against Don Krieg!"

"His strength's the real thing!"

From behind, Luffy heard Patty call him a dimwit, but he had been called names his whole life by the people he cared most for, and he was sure that in the future, his friends would be calling him names far worse, so he didn't really find it too insulting.

The pirates jumped out of the water, weapons in hand, ready to slaughter, "That's it! Let's kill them ourselves!"

Before they could get any further, their captain called them back. He was sitting on an elevated floor and rested his whole body on the railing of the platform, his head supported by his fist that rested on his leg. "Step back, all of you!"

"D-Don Krieg…!"

"But they…"

Don Krieg had a bored look, probably thinking why he ever needed such crewmembers, "A person who gets angry just for being called weak is indirectly admitting that he's weak." His bored expression turned into a deadly smirk, "The final result is what decides who's strong and who's not. I'm still standing here so don't you start whining for nothing."

The pirates immediately saluted quickly as they agreed with the words of the large pirate.

Don Krieg looked at Luffy and started, "You there, brat." Luffy looked at him, arms crossed, "Who do you think is more fit to be Pirate King? You or me?"

It was obvious, wasn't it? He had a dream to accomplish and a vow to complete. He was strong but he cared for his friends. He would give his life for them. He wasn't smart, nor did he have golden armor like his enemy, nor did he have a ginormous fleet of crewmembers, but if he did, he would use his intelligence for the sake of planning (much like Kuro, but he would never hurt his crewmembers for a plan), he would use amazing armor to shield his friends, block the blow with his body, and if he had such an amazing sized fleet, then he would give his life to each and every one of them.

His dream was to become pirate king, to obtain the most freedom a man could have at the palm of his hand. He would find the legendary treasure One Piece. He didn't care if it was gold or trash, if it allowed him to hold freedom and liberty like his most treasure item, then he would gladly take it onboard his ship.

Not only that, he had a vow to make sure he never would ever break the promise of. The hat that was currently placed on his head held so many memories. It held the memories of a legendary pirate and was making new ones with a boy who had dreams and promises as big as his heart. The hat was entrusted to him so that it would create new, fond memories of a boy as he charged towards the conclusion of his dream.

He deserved to be Pirate King.

He thought so.

And so, he said the truth.

The neko wasted no time in answering such a simple question. It was as easy as five billion plus one. When you see the first number, it frightens you, but then, the second just eases you, giving you realization that it wasn't hard to understand.

So he said it.

"Me."

Patty argued in the background, but he ignored the voice that seemed to be against every single thing he did.

Looking at Don Krieg, he saw his face contort into one of pure anger. He got up from his seat and grabbed a golden shield on one of his shoulders. "Alright, move it men."

The pirates squealed in fright, splashing in the water.

"It's time to teach that dreamer brat over there the true meaning of strength." He faced the shield towards Luffy and the rest, the pirate crossbones and two hourglasses staring right back at him.

Luffy's ears perked high in his hat, his eyes widening when he finally realized what was being pointed at him. During the fight with Don Krieg before, he had smelled a nauseating odor that seemed to radiate from the man, so Luffy thought that the man had worse hygiene than he did, but the smell was much stronger now. It wasn't radiating from his body, but instead from the shoulder shield that seemed to be much more complex than what it really seemed.

"It's the MH5!"

Sanji looked at Luffy, staring at his back, remembering back when the hem of Luffy's hoodie charred a bit, exposing something he wasn't really expecting to see. Although he was interested to see what that black fuzz was that was hidden considerably well, his attention diverted to the teenager's face, noticing the change of expression from blank to terror. About to ask what was wrong (since he found it necessary to know every bit of information in his current situation with the ship), Luffy turned to him and was posed for action.

Luffy wondered if it was absolutely necessary to tell Sanji to escape. The chef was extremely strong but poison in the form of a gas deterred him. His body was in a pose ready for lunging, appearing as if he wanted to attack the blonde chef, which probably explained why Sanji had raised his leg after jumping back a bit. He looked back and stared at the shield and after quick thinking, he turned back to Sanji and lunged.

Sanji let out a yelp of surprise, not having suspected that Luffy would stop for a few seconds only to pounce at him—now that I think about it, that could probably come in handy if I ever need to confuse an enemy. Luffy straddled Sanji underneath him, hissing a bit when Sanji kicked at him.

"Sanji, calm down!" Luffy started, and continued, "Look, stay down and don't breathe!"

Sanji stopped fighting for a second, the sounds of arguing sounding behind him. It sounded like Gin, but he paid not too much attention to it. Instead, he thought about the words of the teenager who had trapped him with ease. "Wha—?"

"Poison." Luffy hissed out, not at Sanji, but at the weapon of choice from their enemy. "It's poison!"

The chef stilled as he took in the newly given information, "How would you know…?" he asked, unconvinced but a large part of him felt as though he needed to confide in him, "How would you know?" he added. Although it was phrased as the exact same question, he indirectly asked for two answers. At first, he was simply confused as to how he would know that inside the shield was poison, but realized that if it indeed was, how the hell did he know?

Luffy flinched and looked at Sanji in the eyes, sweat forming on his forehead. He faced away from the chef and looked at his enemies. Gin was facing Don Krieg who was speaking loud enough for the neko to hear over his own conversation, "I… I just do." But then he smiled, "I'll tell you if you join my crew!"

"I already told you that I wasn't going to join! If I need to join a pirate crew to know how you figured out something like that, then I prefer not ruining my life for a petty reason like this." His voice was close to yelling, but it seemed he restrained himself so he wouldn't get any unwanted attention, "And get off of me!"

The neko did so and hopped off, but he looked back at Don Krieg who still had the weapon poised at them. "You know that there's nothing I hate more than foolishly naïve things like 'honor' or 'compassion'. Listen well. This is a battle we're in and in a battle, you fight to win."

Don Krieg continued his speech, but Luffy's attention diverted to the golden shield, the skull almost smiling at him. He sniffed some more, and confirmed to Sanji that it was definitely poison in the form of gas. But, there was something else in the mix, something that was too common on the seas.

Gunpowder.

Perhaps the shield needed gunpowder to work and to shoot the gas, but the neko smelled too much of it, the same amount one used for a cannon or a shotgun.

Then it hit him.

It was like a cannon.

It didn't matter if he evaded or stayed low.

It would come at them in the form of a bullet and explode its chemicals for the world to see. A definite death even if you tried to duck or evade or dodge or jump out of the way. It was impossible to escape. If you entered the restaurant, the gas would just seep through the cracks from the fight before. The water was the safest bet, but the neko didn't really have a good grab on everything about poison, so he wasn't sure that was going to help. So, he looked around and noticed the pirates grab gas masks from… somewhere, and placed it on their face, prepared for the air pollution.

"So all you have to do is win! Even if it means using a poison gas bomb!" Don Krieg finished. The mouth of the skull opened and revealed a cannon muzzle.

Luffy reached out and grabbed two gas masks from unsuspecting pirates, one for Sanji and himself, but then he thought about Gin. He guessed that since the pirate was from the same crew, he already had one, so he didn't bother, so he threw a gas mask at Sanji. A few of the other pirates had realized the napper and ducked underwater, but it proved unnecessary since he didn't need any more.

The neko looked back and as he was about to put on the mask, he heard a click. His ears shifted to search for the sound again, and there was another click. They were definitely gears—he had heard enough of them that day to recognize another—and it piqued his curiosity. What was changing?

He stared at the shield and more clicking sounds were heard. He doubted anyone else could hear them since he had barely noticed as well, but he didn't know what they meant, and that could lead to something far more dangerous. He forced his ears to listen harder and when he finally managed to get a good reach, he could hear something heavy being moved, and it sounded far too similar to iron. The poison smell vanished for a complete second before it returned, but it was weaker.

Just like the gears of what he assumed was inside the shield, his mind clicked as puzzle pieces formed a complete picture. "It changed?" Luffy said mostly to himself, but Sanji had heard him.

Sanji had found it strange that he was paying attention to every single detail the teenager had done. Sometimes, his face would scrunch up and others, he would tilt his head and stare at something, as if he was thinking intently, but he almost found that impossible for such a kid as him. But, as he continued to stare, he heard Luffy say something that had gotten his attention, "It changed?"

Immediately, he rushed over to Luffy, unsure of how much time they had until he would set the poison, but it seemed that the one who had given him the information was flustered and had yet to put on the mask, so he hadn't either.

"What changed?" he asked hastily.

Luffy looked at him, completely unsurprised that he was there (almost as if he had known), and replied just as quickly, "It's not poison anymore?" he leaned in closer to Krieg, "Yeah, it's something else."

"It's not poison? What is it now?" Sanji asked, his heart now beating faster when he realized that he had no idea how much time they were wasting. He had noticed that once again Luffy had a serious look on his face, denying any chance that he was lying (since from earlier, he was a horrible liar from what he could tell) and making it seem convincing enough to believe that it wasn't poison anymore.

"Yeah, it's not poison, but, I don't know what it is. It sounds really loud though, and it kinda sounds like Zoro's swords when they clash against metal…" Luffy's face turned a bit red, "So…" he grit his teeth and touched his forehead, Sanji stared at him in disbelief.

'Was he getting a headache from thinking? If he is, that's just plain pathetic.' Sanji thought, 'but, what does he mean by sounds? Was he hearing them? Impossible.' He shook his head and decided to continue with his own opinion, "Something sharp?"

Luffy paused and looked at him, "I guess?" they stared at each other for a moment before Luffy continued, "I guess you don't need the mask?" he asked.

Sanji shook his head, "No. It seemed everyone else had pulled out their gas masks as well," He turned to look at the pirates who had submerged when they deemed the mask-napping safe, "So I'm guessing that it won't be long before he pulls out the real thing."

Luffy nodded and stared at the gas mask before stuffing it inside his sweater then looked at Don Krieg, who was grinning like a maniac, "One whiff of this will be enough to render your entire body immobile." He lifted his arm a bit higher and fired the weapon, a blast of light pillared horizontally at the group of people, screams and yells echoed across the vast ocean, "This is 'strength'!"

The chefs dived into the sea in an attempt to escape what Luffy and Sanji had previously thought to be poison, but the two stood there, Sanji thinking about what it was that they should do if it was in fact something sharp. Getting a good look at it, it had the shape of a bullet of a launcher, not like a cannonball or a normal bullet, but he assumed that if it were anything like what a poison bomb would be, then inside would be the weapons.

Luffy cocked his head to the side when he heard clanking from inside the bullet, knowing that the sharp weapons were inside, but he figured that punching the large bullet would cause an explosion that would most likely caused every single item inside to impact against him.

"I really doubt you'll be able to punch it without getting hurt," Sanji said, looking at the neko, "but I don't really see any other way around it if it's going to explode when it lands here." He concluded. "What do you want to do?"

It was really close.

"Guess I have no choice but to punch it." Luffy said, punching the palm of his hand.

"And if it hits you?"

The neko shrugged, "I'll just ignore it."

Then he charged. He wasn't dumb either. If he had an opportunity to evade something that would wound him gravely and it wouldn't affect the fight, then he would obviously choose to stay healthy and strong. He stomped on the broken wood, breaking it some more but sending larger pieces into the air around him. He grabbed two of the largest pieces all while running with both of his hands. As he lunged at the vessel holding all the weapons, he placed both of the large chunks of planks together, creating a sort of shield large and thick enough to most likely protect himself and most of the people behind him from whatever was going to explode out of the bullet.

Luffy grinned, feeling proud of himself for coming up with a pretty smart plan. When the boards made contact to the tip of the bullet, he subconsciously used more force as if it was a punch, creating an impact that both shattered the wood—but miraculously not breaking them completely—and causing the bullet to simply pop, most of the explosion going out through the back of the bullet.

'Smart,' Sanji thought.

As they had guessed, there were indeed weapons that cut inside, and they indeed exploded in separate directions, but because of the large two planks of wood that Luffy had broken a bit, most of the weapons—shurikens to be exact—had stuck onto the wood planks, which were thick enough for only a small tip of the shuriken would appear on the other side. The bomb was specially made for the sharp weapons inside to explode in every direction, so many of the shurikens had passed Luffy, but the neko was close enough to Sanji to protect him with the 'shield' of wood.

Since the wood was charred and next to broken, a few managed to pass through the actual shield, but not towards the direction of Sanji or Gin. One sliced past the wood, breaking it completely, but luckily it had been one of the last ones to shoot out. Unfortunately, the same one had sliced through Luffy's side, leaving him with a fresh wound on his side and tearing that side of his hoodie wide open. The impact was also no joke, either. With one shrapnel, Luffy was thrown to the floor as if he had made contact with something much bigger.

The neko hissed at the pain in his side and clutched the wound, feeling blood pour out of the new cut. "Owwwww!" he lengthened the word until he had run out of breath.

"The Shuriken Bomb?!" The pirates realized that it hadn't been the real thing, taking off their masks but many wondering how the kid in a hoodie and straw hat had figured it out.

"But, what was with that kid?"

"I don't know. Did he already know that it was a trick?"

"This kid is too weird!"

Krieg frowned as he stared at the raven, wondering how in the world the dumb teenager could've figured out and successfully managed to (mostly) protect himself and the chef from his shuriken bomb. He grunted, but, to Luffy and Sanji's curiosity, he didn't say anything, but the expression on his face clearly read that he wanted to curse and insult them until they died. "You may have dodged most of that attack, but you cannot deny the fact that I'm far more superior than you are! I have powerful weapons that overpower you in every possible way and you cannot fight back! Now, I'll ask you again! Which one of us do you think is more fit to become Pirate King?!"

Luffy stood up and patted his side, making sure to check his stability. He sighed and purred softly, barely audibly, but spoke loud and clear, "Me! It definitely can't be you!"

Don Krieg's eyes narrowed dangerously. He growled, "Gin! You're responsible for killing that cook! But I'll kill this brat myself!" Luffy grinned. He had heard that growl as loud as a wailing child.

"You're on." Luffy said, baring his canines in a toothy smile.

"D-Don Krieg is really pissed off!" the pirates said.

Gin turned to face Sanji, "Understood, Don." The tonfa in his hands ready for action once again, but this time it was going to be used on Sanji. "Sorry, Sanji… but you can't win against me."

Sanji chuckled, but there was no sign of amusement on his face; smoke puffing out from his cigarette, "Took the words right out of my mouth."

Don Krieg faced Luffy and Luffy did the same, "Damn brat. I'll demonstrate to you the might of the ruler of East Blue. You'll know soon enough that your strange power is meaningless before me." The large pirate wore a deadly glare that the neko was already used to.

"Keep talking." Luffy adjusted his hoodie and made a knot around the slash of the gaping hole, "I'll send you flying either way." He placed the hoodie on top of his hat, knowing that if he was going to be hopping everywhere and if there were more explosions, then his hat would have a very high chance of falling of his head and that was never a good idea if he was in a large crowd. "I'll come over there right now so wash your face and sit tight." He cracked his knuckles.

"So you're stupid enough to try and come over here again, are you?" Don Krieg laughed.

Behind Luffy, he could hear smashing and breaking, signaling that Gin and Sanji had already begun their fight. Cheers from the pirates filled the air and yells of distress from the chefs told Luffy that Sanji was losing so far. After another minute or two, he could hear murmurs sound around him, "T-That cook landed a hit on Gin…!"

"You don't think even Gin'll be done in by him, do you…?" a pirate asked another.

Luffy stared at Don Krieg who was now talking to his crewmates, telling them to never doubt Gin's fighting abilities. "Gin's a calm and collected 'demon'. It's exactly because of that nature that I placed him as the battle commander. He'll show his true abilities in just a little while."

"T-The Don's right."

"Gin's a merciless killer who doesn't even hesitate for a second in brutally slaughtering his enemies, whether they be crying or begging… that's why he's the cold-hearted 'demon', without a shred of compassion…!"

"He's looking away. Now's my chance to send him flying!" Luffy climbed the fallen mast that had hit Pearl on the head before and ran as fast as he could across it and towards his enemy.

Said enemy had noticed him far quicker than Luffy would've liked but he continued to run in hopes of reaching him before he used another weapon, "No need to be impatient." The shield that Krieg held in front of him had opened a bit wider vertically and horizontally, and when Luffy heard the snapping of fingers, he knew he wasn't going to make it.

Next to him in the water, he heard something small fall into it—similar to the sound of a pebble falling into a small pond or when a fish let out a bubble that popped. He slowed a bit, curious as a cat to know what it was that had seemingly appeared and vanished out of nowhere, but that proved to be a bad idea since the spot he had been staring at exploded. It was definitely bigger than a normal explosion, a wave as big as a ship hit the mast Luffy was on, but it didn't manage to break the wood.

"BECAUSE I'LL KILL YOU AS WELL WITHIN DUE TIME!" he yelled as the shield shot out large pointed cylinders as sharp as needles through the water.

Luffy barely had time to process the attack because of the lack of sight from the cascading water in front of him, so when he heard firing, instinct immediately told him to run the opposite direction, and for once, he followed it. He ducked his head so that both his hat and back of his head wouldn't be in the range of the spears, but that still left the rest of his body. He prepared to pounce off the mast but then he felt a sharp pain engulf the back of his left thigh, causing him to trip but fortunately land on a broken platform.

"So you managed to get away, hammer boy." Krieg smirked.

The neko wailed in pain, clutching the thick spear in his thigh in an attempt to keep his cool and to pull it out. "Ow Owwwww! Damn it!" He felt his tail whipping inside his pants, threatening to break out of their cell. His hoodie also threatened to fall off, but it surprisingly hadn't.

After much more struggling, Luffy managed to pull out the spear out of his thigh. He stabbed the floor with it, painting the hole and around it with red. He stood up and scowled annoyed, "Hey, you bastard! Do you not want to fight or what?!"

The enemy cocked his head, a lopsided smirk present on his face, "Do I want to fight…?" He chuckled, "I don't need to. The only thing I need in a battle are methods which to kill you. That is true might as a human! On the other hand, you, who can only charge straight-ahead without using your head, are equivalent to a monkey!"

Luffy pulled both sides of his mouth and stretched them, mocking Don Krieg by mimicking the sounds of a monkey, "Underestimate monkeys and you'll get clawed!"

"FINISH'IM GIN!"

Don Krieg grinned and looked behind the neko, Luffy doing the same.

On the ground laid Sanji, clutching his stomach as blood erupted from his mouth. Gin stood over him, his weapons covered in the blood that definitely didn't belong to him.

"His bones are all cracked by now, I bet!" A pirate laughed cheerfully.

"Kill him!"

The neko looked at the chefs, "Damn it! If it wasn't for that shield-wearing bastard, then Sanji would…!"

"He's already received ten blows from those iron balls!"

Sanji sat up, now clutching higher up, and smirked when his eyes met Gin's, "Those… skewered dango of yours ain't… so great… You… small fry…"

Gin charged at Sanji as he spun his tonfas, "Time to put an end to this! Don't bother struggling anymore!"

Sanji stared at Gin, almost looking displeased, and Luffy caught on why. Sanji evaded the attack Gin had thrown at him by doing a handstand, "Hah! Were you going easy on me just now or what?!" he brought his foot down on Gin's head, bringing him down and breaking the floor, "To hell with you!"

Luffy wanted to smile at the victory, but when he saw Sanji's cool expression immediately contort into one of pure agony, he knew now wasn't a good time to celebrate. He flinched every single time he heard a crack, suspecting the worst of what could've happened. He didn't want to think about it, but the cracking and crunching was all too real. Sanji was going to fall as well.

The chefs called out to their comrade, Carne realizing that even his own kicks would bring him crumbling to the floor because of the shock his body would receive.

Gin, on the other hand, smashed his hand on the floor, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, "Die."

At the sight of Gin getting up and walking towards the injured Sanji, the enemy pirates laughed mockingly, cheering for their pirate comrade. Luffy felt nauseated from the sick cheerful smell radiating from every pirate apart from him. Don Krieg grinned and huffed out a chuckle, cocking his head to observe the scene better.

Gin walked over to Sanji and grabbed him by the neck as he rested on the floor. He raised one tonfa—abandoning his other at his previous location—above Sanji's head, the chef cursing at the pirate.

Luffy thought it would be the end for his hopefully new crewmember, but he caught a whiff of something he wasn't expecting to smell, almost missing the odor altogether because of the lack of anticipation.

It was sadness.

And it was coming from the pirate who had a deadly weapon raised over the head of his enemy.

The smell of damp rain filled his nose, reminding him of a day after a heavy downpour. When Gin hadn't made a single move to indicate he was going to end the life of the chef, Luffy knew that the pirate was close to breaking, and he was proven correct when salt was added to the mix of rain, similar to an ocean but not as salty or bitter. Luffy felt a tang of pity when he saw Gin holding back powerful tears, many having successfully escaped past his eyelids.

After what seemed like an eternity, Gin let go of Sanji's neck and yelled for everyone to hear, "I JUST CAN'T! DON KRIEG!"

The dampness filled the neko's nose, causing him a bit of discomfort to be in a place where he was already surrounded by plenty of water, only to add a humidity that wasn't exactly calm nor joyful.

Sanji, still laying on the floor, had a shock in his eyes. Pure. Real. Shock. He hadn't been expecting that. That was for certain. What he had been expecting was pain then darkness, but when he realized after many seconds that the first step hadn't happened yet, he knew something was going on. Gin's face in front of him was darkened from the shadow between the two, so he couldn't see his enemy's face, so he resorted to the person who, so far, seemed to have an answer to everything.

And he got what he wanted.

Luffy's face had sympathy in it, a bit of pity as well. Something was happening to his enemy since he knew, for some forsaken reason, that the slightly broken look on the teenager's face was not directed at him—the one who was at death's grasp.

How he had known? He didn't know either. But, it seemed he had a good grab on what was going on.

Luffy's nose scrunched up, adding more curiosity and a bit of nervousness to Sanji. Something was going on, but it didn't take long before the chef had finally figured it out—when a drop of clear liquid fell right beside his head. Looking up, he now saw Gin's eyes pouring tears like a waterfall.

Shock.

His mouth slightly opened from that emotion, his eyes widening when he got a good look at the pitiful face Gin wore. Blood caked his face, a fresh cut dripping the red liquid over his eye and to his cheek.

Luffy sucked the saliva in his mouth and swallowed, "Gin…"

"I SIMPLY CAN'T KILL THIS MAN…!"

Luffy could already feel the anger radiate from the person he was fighting before, not bothering to look at him since he already knew what would happen next, "What did you just say…?!" his voice was low but carried the same deadliness that it held before.

"Because…" Gin started, but his voice was so weak it was heart-breaking.

"SAY THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME!" Don Krieg ordered, practically on the verge of screaming.

Gin grabbed the top of his headband, pulling it downwards in an attempt to hide his tear stained eyes. He bit his bottom lip as more tears and snot ran downwards on his face, "Because… I've never been treated so kindly by another person… in my entire life…!" He sniffed, "That's why… I just can't kill this man!"

Luffy looked behind him, glaring at Don Krieg and planning to attack if he planned to do anything to harm the other pirate, "Coward." The larger pirate said, grabbing his shield and hoisting it upwards, a clear sign that he was prepared to use it again.

"I-It can't be…! Don!" the pirates screamed.

More clicking sounds.

The poisonous smell returned.

This time, Luffy knew that it was going to be the real thing.

He looked back at Sanji with frantic eyes, the chef barely registering the look when he glanced at the neko. From the smell of confusion, Luffy knew that the blonde chef hadn't understood what he had meant with that stare, so he decided to do the next best thing and mouthed the word, "Poison." Knowing it would be pointless to make it any longer since he wasn't sure if Sanji knew perfectly well how to read mouths, he had only mouthed that single word, and the look of recognition told him that Sanji had most definitely understood.

The chef scooted onto his bottom and reached out for the gas mask, keeping it close to himself as Luffy tugged on his from inside his hoodie. Just like Luffy had done before, he stared at the item in his hand and placed it on his lap. He gently placed his back against the floor again, exhaustion washing through his body and body ache coursing through his abdomen and muscles. He turned his head to look at Luffy, wondering if his voice would reach the straw hat kid.

With what had happened in previous events, the kid obviously had acute hearing. He had managed to hear something like iron (if he remembered correctly) moving around inside the shield of Don Krieg when others and he had missed it, so he assumed that if he whispered, the kid would pick it up, especially since he was looking right back at him.

"You sure this time?" he said in the softest voice he could muster, half of him wondering if he had said it too softly.

Luffy heard Sanji's question clearly. The space in between them wasn't too far apart and he could see Sanji move his mouth, so it would be hard not to realize he was saying something. Being a neko also allowed him to listen perfectly, and he had heard the question, so he responded by nodding his head. He could see the surprise in Sanji's eyes, but they calmed themselves as he looked back at the sky, but Luffy continued to stare at the chef, wondering how much he was revealing and how much the blonde was piecing it all together.

"You can't kill him? That's quite disappointing, Gin. I always believed you to be my most loyal subordinate who could adhere to my philosophy of war more than anyone else." Don Krieg had an angered look plastered on his face, "The reason why I placed you as the battle commander of my pirate fleet of fifty ships is because of your fighting abilities as well as your willingness to win by any means no matter how vile or despicable—was greater than that of any of my subordinates!"

Gin placed his fists close to the floor next to his legs, looking down—not daring to face his captain, but he continued to speak, "I know, Don. I really have no intention of betraying you, nor do I think what I've done all along was mistake. I deeply admire your strength, Don. You could say I'm grateful… but, I just can't bring myself to kill this man!"

The neko stared at Gin, almost forgetting to purr to heal the wounds a bit faster. The wounds on his side and thigh bled some more, but he could feel the cut on his side stop spilling significantly when he had tightened the hoodie around that area. On the other hand, the hole in his thigh continued to stain blood past his shorts and trail down his leg like bleach. Just then, the smell of petrichor strengthened, filled with a tinge of citrus and zest.

He was hoping.

But the smell of sadness wasn't there because he would have to kill his friend.

It was there because the hope Gin held was false.

He knew his hope would be smashed.

Luffy felt his hands ball into fists.

"Don Krieg… if it's possible… if there's the slightest chance possible…" he was stating his hope in the image of possibility and chance. When he looked up, his face was covered in tears, the dark circles around his eyes covered up by the liquid. A smile was etched to his face, but it was easily breakable, the corners of his lips twitching as he tried to hold the emotion, "Could we please… let this ship go…?"

Immediately, the anger that Krieg had already released exploded like a nuclear bomb, ash and fire overpowering the rain and lemons that Luffy could smell before. His ears laid against his head, knowing that the hope that Gin so desperately wanted to become a reality was only possible in a dream.

Gin's crewmembers yelled out in shock and anger, asking about why he would do such absurdities, "Gin! How could you?!"

"I've misjudged you!"

"What happened to you, commander?!"

The chefs floating in the water stared in silence, not knowing whose side to take anymore. Zeff, Patty and Carne stared in silence, but even behind their masks of unruffled, it was clear to the neko or anyone else that everyone was feeling unsettled.

"YOU, MY MOST LOYAL SUBORDINATE, DARE DEFY MY ORDERS?!" Luffy, not having prepared for such a loud noise to explode in the silence before, slammed his hands to cover his neko ears, not caring if somebody else noticed his hands were placed higher than the normal placement of human ears, "HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND, Gin?!"

Glaring at Don Krieg, Luffy eyed the shield that the pirate captain held in front of him, knowing that now was the time that he wasn't joking around. He quickly turned around to face Sanji and released his ears, noting that Sanji was staring at him curiously. He nodded again and Sanji repeated the gesture, grabbing the gas mask from before and holding it much closer to him than before. Luffy pulled out his own and lifted it up, studying the interior of the mask to figure out how to use the item.

Pirates screamed, "It's the MH5!"

"Put on your masks!"

"This time, it's for real!"

The pirates snarled, flustered at what action they should take: to duck and dive like before or stay afloat long enough to realize that it was another trick.

Although Luffy had known that it was poison all along, he couldn't help but insult the other pirate captain.

"But Don! We were saved because of this restaurant!" Gin tried to convince Krieg, but by the merciless look on the larger pirate's face, Luffy knew that it was impossible.

"Throw away your gas mask, Gin. You're no longer one of my crew." His voice was loud but not booming, frightened almost everyone who had heard.

Luffy felt his back and tail tingle.

He hated this man.

"Wha—?!" a few more tears ran down his cheeks, "Don… Krieg…"

"The Don's really planning on killing even Gin!" A pirate said to the others.

"What!? That's impossible! Gin's his right-hand man!"

"That's right. There's not a single man who's more loyal to the Don than Gin."

"Even during that time too…! Back when we just escaped the Grand Line only to be suddenly ambushed by Fullbody. Gin alone disguised as our Don and lured the marines away!"

"He's a man who always risked his life fighting for the Don's sake."

"A man who became even a demon to carry out the Don's orders! There's just no way Don Krieg could kill a man like Gin…!"

Despite these conclusions and opinions, Don Krieg repeated the order much louder this time, "THROW AWAY YOUR MASK!"

Gin grabbed a gas mask from inside his white jacket and stared at it, a flurry of emotions whirling around him like a tornado. Although Luffy already had a mask ready for use, he knew that all the chefs and Zeff didn't. Looking back at the only one who knew everything Luffy knew at that moment, he charged with a thought swarming his mind: Protect the ones who can't protect themselves.

"As if I'd let you fire your poison gas bomb!" Luffy charged on the same mast pole as last time, pushing more speed into his legs.

Krieg noticed the straw hat kid charging at him at speeds even admirable in his eyes, but the only thing he said was, "Nuisance!" and shot the same spears as before.

Luffy perked his ears, the wind passing through the patterns of his hat not really aiding him in listening where the spears were going. He had dealt with faster things, a good example was Kuro, and so he could easily evade the weapons now that he was prepared for the attack. He lunged further and found himself charging on four legs, the great acceleration giving him the possibility to dodge the attack and latch on underneath the mast, so he did.

Instinct took over and he realized he was already lunging at the enemy as he clung onto the mast with sharp claws. His eyes turned into slits for a mere second before they returned back to normal, enjoying the feeling of being a cat once again. The mast felt like a tree, and a big one at that, so he felt as if he was at home, stalking from high above in the branches. The shadows of a forest would disguise him in the dark. He was built for the jungle and forest.

He swore, that if he ever needed to fight someone in a place filled with trees, that person was going to get slaughtered.

"That hammer brat who can't even swim… I TOLD YOU I'D KILL YOU WITHIN DUE TIME, DIDN'T I?!" with that said, Don Krieg smashed his fist on his side of the mast, collapsing the pillar of wood into the ocean and causing Luffy to almost slip. His nails-turned-claws assisted in his need to cling, so he found himself grateful for the deformed cartilage. He heaved himself up the mast and when he heard another clicking sound, he knew it was a good time to run the other way.

Daring to look back for a second, he saw multiple more spears heading his direction, so the neko pounced back to Sanji and Gin, making sure not to drop the gas mask he had put back in his hoodie when he had charged before. He rolled onto the broken platform, hissing out a curse before smashing his fist on the floor, stopping his volution, "Gin! There's no need to listen to a big coward like him! I'll send him flying this instant!"

After many silent seconds, Gin yelled at him, "Straw hat!" The neko turned around, "Don't you dare insult Don Krieg! Don Krieg is the strongest man. You don't have a chance of beating him."

Sanji immediately slashed out. He grabbed Gin's shoulder as rough as he could in an attempt to snap the pirate out of it. "Hey! Open your eyes already! That man is trying to kill you!"

Gin didn't even look at him, but he did reply, "Of course he is. I'm just a failure who broke his crew's code of law because his compassions got in the way." Without a second thought, he flung his gas mask towards the ocean, "This is what I deserve!"

Sanji clutched his, "What?! Why?!"

"Gin…" Luffy heard many pirates say as softly as they could, trying not to gain the attention of their captain who could so easily give up their strongest member.

Luffy heard another click, but this time, it was much louder. Immediately, he turned around and yelled at the blonde, "Sanji!"

Sanji looked at him with wide eyes and patted himself to find the mask. Now in his hands, he placed it on his face and stared at Don Krieg, the incredible ray of blinding light spilling out from the mouth of the skull and crossbones. "LETHAL POISON GAS BOMB! MH5!"

Luffy was about to put on his when he realized that Gin had thrown his away. He gritted his teeth and threw the gas mask he had obtained before at Gin and searched for another one, silently hoping that there was one laying around somewhere. When he hadn't found one, he searched the ocean, but everyone else had evacuated that specific part of the sea underwater. Don Krieg had his own mask, but unlike the dull olive color of the masks that belonged to the pirates, his was a vibrant gold.

Hearing a fast swoosh of wind above him, he saw the bomb flying directly above his head. The tail stowed away in his pants puffed up and his hair hidden underneath the hat and hoodie shook violently. Patty and Carne carried Zeff away unceremoniously to the back of the restaurant, disappearing out of Luffy's sight or anyone else's.

He grabbed his head and desperately looked around, screaming, 'what do I do' repeatedly. When he thought that his adventure was going to come to an end so early, he heard something clank beside him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the ugly olive gas mask resting next to him, and Luffy didn't hesitate one bit before he had grabbed it and placed it on his face. The interior of the mask wasn't comfortable at all, especially since his hoodie had been in the way when he had placed it on, but after removing the leftover pieces of the hoodie that he could see with his peripheral vision from inside the mask, he felt much more comfortable.

Looking to where the bomb would land, he heard from far away, "This is might."

He gnarled.

Painful seconds passed by and before Luffy knew it, the area had turned purple. His advanced eye sight proved to be useless to make out anything at all since the only color he could see was a dusty violet. The gas spread to an incredible size, but it seemed to keep a distance away from the actual building, so Luffy imagined that the three chefs that had ran over to the back of the restaurant were safe enough. Looking around, he attempted once more to find everyone, but he couldn't sniff nor see well enough to locate anyone, mainly Sanji and Gin. Knowing that two senses were useless, he resorted to hearing, and what he heard was not a good sound.

From varying distances, he could hear the mechanical sounds of breathing passing through the gas masks, but near him, he could hear something far different. It sounded ragged and dry. The person breathing was having complications breathing properly, and the short distance in between Luffy told him that it was most likely the two people he wanted most safe at that moment. His eyes shook crazily, hoping that he had heard wrong, but he knew that most times, it wasn't.

There seemed to be a struggle as well, he could hear kicking and a blocked voice, presumably by a mask, but he couldn't make out the voice. It was far too muffled for his ears to recognize the tone, but one thing he could make out was the kicking. The familiar sound of those feet kicking sent a shiver through Luffy's spine.

Cats had a unique ability to identify people by their footsteps, and being a neko, Luffy was born with that ability, so he knew perfectly well whose those kicks belonged too.

Sanji.

Luffy's mind wandered to the worst possibility, wondering that if the man struggling for air was the same person kicking in desperation to stay alive.

His breathing hitched.

There was deadly silence, but Luffy could still hear the breaths, each second they grew louder and louder, but not enough to catch the attention of anyone else. From further away, in the direction of the chefs, he could hear voices, but he didn't pay any heed to them.

In all honesty, he was frightened.

He didn't know who the breathing belonged to.

There was a giant chance that it was Sanji, far too big for his liking, but if it was Sanji, he was losing someone who he was growing attached to and had somewhat purposely been giving away free hints that he was a neko—a creature so rare they were considered myth. The blonde had a habit of smoking, something that Luffy was sure he would get used to one day, and he was an excellent chef, and it so happened that Luffy enjoyed to eat. The last reason made him seem selfish, but, he didn't mind calling himself that.

Because he was selfish.

He was selfish so many ways and he was sure he was going to discover more reasons to add to that list.

But, at the same time, what if it had been Gin? He hadn't grown a very strong relationship with the man, but the pirate proved to be worthy enough of being considered a friend. He was obviously loyal, especially to Sanji and Krieg, and the fact that he couldn't kill the person the latter had ordered him to murder was enough to bring Luffy to like him, especially since the person on the hit list was Sanji himself.

Not only that, Gin had wanted to escape the torture that he knew would confront him every single day if he would've killed Sanji. He may have been a merciless man and a killer before, but Luffy didn't know that man. He hadn't seen that man murder anyone (except for the one marine at the entranceway, but that was a normal pirate tendency) and he was unsure if he would. He didn't have any problem with people who killed before as long as those victims were no one important and had a role that he had known or could imagine. So, he considered Gin to by a friend. He may be an enemy, but he didn't want to follow the order of the man he had followed for who knows how long.

But, that didn't change the fact that Luffy still didn't know who was dying.

After many painful minutes, hearing a chef in the ocean say that five had passed, the poison gas finally started to disappear to the atmosphere. He perked his whole body high like a meerkat, looking in the direction of Sanji and Gin.

He desperately hoped that he was hearing wrong, and his hope seemed to be possible when the ragged breathing had stopped.

It could have been his imagination.

Paranoia.

Yeah.

Paranoia.

That was what happened.

He was paranoid of the possible loss of a friend by the hands of the gas and Krieg himself.

A small smile made it to his face, his eyes hopeful that his line of thinking was true.

But when the gas had vanished, his hopeful eyes turned dreadful.

●ω●

Sanji placed the mask on his face, the hard texture inside squishing his face so much that he was sure bright red markings were going to be left behind where the rim of the mask was. As soon as he had done that, he realized that the teenager some distance away was struggling and frantically searching for something, and judging from the fact that he had thrown his only mask at Gin, he knew that it was protection that he was looking for.

Immediately, he slipped off his own mask, feeling a slight burn from the rapid movement, and threw it at Luffy, who had noticed it and hastily grabbed it. He smiled, knowing that it was going to be his end and that in a few seconds, his body would feel like it was on fire while being crushed by a spiky boulder. But, his reason of smiling was for something else. He didn't know for what, but he felt pride in himself.

But, before the bomb had exploded and was still currently in midair, he felt something slam onto his face quite bluntly.

He squirmed, thinking that the bomb itself had slammed onto his face but when he felt hands restraining him down from the head, he knew that Gin had been the one to do that. Realizing this, he started to kick, but his previous wounds and broken ribs prevented him from kicking too hard. At first, he grabbed at the perimeter of the mask, intending to rip the item away from his face, but after realizing that it started to cut through the thin webbing in between his thumb and index finger, he halted as fast as a the speed of light.

He didn't want to harm his hands in any way, so he resorted to grabbing the arms holding him down.

He had never practiced using his hands for strength, so he was easily overpowered when a man who used tonfa tipped with iron balls and made completely of iron (and also capable of destroying an iron shield) held him down.

The pressure on his face was definitely uncomfortable, so when the pressure weakened against his head after what seemed like an eternity, he felt relieved to know that he would be able to see better (since the only glass that provided sight was as dark as night) and know what the heck was going on.

During the whole struggle, he had felt a strange sensation surrounding his whole body, somewhat unnerving him a bit, so he guessed that it had been the gas, but that only brought up the question, 'whose mask was he using?'

He froze, thinking of what was happening at that very moment, and it was not a good thought. Immediately, he kicked even harder, trying to get past the strong arms that held him down. He clawed at the limbs currently getting weaker, thinking that he was winning. "Gin! Move your hand!" he yelled through his mask, but he wasn't sure how loud his voice was since the interior of the gas mask seemed to muffle every noise, even his own.

When the gas passed completely, the force of the limbs weakened incredibly, and Sanji used that opportunity to push away. But when he did, he wished he hadn't been so harsh.

Gin let go of the mask, and Sanji was most definitely surprised (but that itself was an understatement) to see the pale and purple face staring right back at him. Gin's eyes were bloodshot, the actual liquid pouring out of his mouth as his whole body trembled. His breathing was worse than someone with asthma, and this made the chef freeze in shock.

'He wasn't wearing his mask.' Sanji thought, his eyes wide when he finally got the mask off of him, "He wasn't wearing his mask.' His mind continued to repeat the same phrase over and over again, wondering what had happened in the event of the firing.

"Gin! Where's your mask?!" Luffy asked frantically, removing his mask in a hurry.

Gin, instead of giving a proper response, grunted, but his throat sounded sickly clogged, and before anyone could react, the pirate looked up and vomited buckets of blood, his eyes rolled back in his head.

"GIN!" Sanji and Luffy chorused.

Sanji lunged forward, but felt immediate pain in his abdomen, 'Damn it!' He thought. He was honestly angry. Angry, worried, guilty… and who knows how many more emotions he felt, but, this time, he lunged harder, successfully sitting up and ignoring the sharp and burning pain that coursed through his body in an attempt to keep him down.

Luffy and Sanji panicked, Sanji grabbing hold of Gin as Luffy rushed over to the pair. As they shuffled about, booming laughter interrupted them, "What a fool! That's what he gets for thinking he's eternally indebted just for receiving some grub. Well, idiots will never understand until they die." Don Krieg smirked, not even a shred of sympathy notable in his features and smell.

The neko's body felt unbalanced. One side felt light, but the other felt heavy. His breathing hitched various times in a train of no patterns, his fists shaking like an earthquake. His tail and hair shook just as violently as his hands, his eyes turning into golden slits and back again before finally stopping, flashing brighter gold than Don Krieg's armor.

"Gin…" Sanji growled, but Luffy knew it wasn't directed at him nor at Gin.

Oh no.

Definitely not. It was directed at the man who had done this to somebody they cared about.

"It seems you've chosen the wrong man to follow." His voice was next to yelling.

Luffy bit inside his cheek, drawing blood that did nothing to quench his thirst. His body felt so horrible. It started to hurt even.

It reminded of him back when his brother had passed…

"KRIIIIEG!" his voice boomed louder than Krieg's could ever surpass. There was an echo to his voice, one that sounded so animalistic and demonic.

Oh how he smiled when he saw the fear in that bastard's eyes.

 **YES! I FINISHED! FINALLY!**

 **(One) Piece out!**


	7. Chapter 7: Red Motor Fuel

Chapter 7: Red Motor Fuel

 **Wait, I thought I was done...? Damnit.**

Don Krieg's face, Luffy knew he had succeeded in bringing down the enemy by only glaring at him.

He opened his mouth and took in large breaths, his canines bared for all the world to see.

He continued to breathe like this, feeling his body do flips and turn upside down when he moved or twitched. It felt like he was being spun around until he lost consciousness, the world around him spinning as if he were inside the vortex of a tornado. He was still for many minutes, not wanting to feed the hands that would grab onto his mind if he ever gave in.

It hurt too.

And a lot.

His whole body, apart from the somersaults and the backflips his organs were doing, felt like it was being crushed by a burning rocky surface, the stones pressing into his skin knowing full well that it was going to bruise into a nasty purple-red. Then green. Then black. It showed no mercy for the person it was torturing, and it continued to squeeze them against the floor until their bones and ribs cracked, not being able to support the heavy weight that was freely placing itself onto his whole body.

As the stones would press into him, they would pass down burning touches around his body, poking at him and burning that spot to the point where he would want to amputate it.

As he exhaled, he swore he could feel the heated breaths dance in front of him with the color of smoke, as if he were standing in magma in the middle of summer without any protection.

He was _so_ hot.

 _Scorching._

If he gave in, he and his body were going to regret it.

If he gave in, he was going to wake up with the blood of a person licking at his fingers and coating him like a blanket.

His hands clenched into the tightest fists he could muster, his claws biting into the skin in his palm and causing four cuts to imprint themselves on the callous skin on both hands. He had left his mouth open, feeling a type of closure that definitely calmed him, so he continued to inhale and exhale, repeating the same ragged breaths until he was interrupted by hoarse laughter, sounding choked and stressed.

The laughter grew stronger to the point where it seemed more confident. The ragged cuts in the breaths stopped and the recognizable laughter of Don Krieg could now be distinguishable.

Looking at the other pirate, Luffy watched the trembling eyes of the pirate captain, slightly amazed by how well the other could hide what was before the trembling of his body. The neko smiled. He liked that. He was the dominant one now, wasn't he?

Sanji held Gin in his arms, the pirate struggling to get a good grab at the air. Sanji stared at Krieg, the pirate captain laughing as if he was watching the funniest thing happen in front of him and was clearly enjoying it, but he didn't miss the fact that instead of booming, dominant laughter, it actually appeared to be as if he was… choking? Well, at least struggling for something.

Krieg's eye twitched noticeably, "Feeling sorry for that useless sack of crap?!" he practically screamed.

When he had said that, Sanji wanted nothing more than to kick the pirate until he was only a pile of meat and bones, grinded perfectly for any chef, but as he was about to mutter a string of curses under his breath, the chef's air supply seemed to vanish in a painless way, and so he looked at what seemed to be the vacuum of his oxygen, almost struggling to look up.

In front of him, what he saw wasn't the happy-go-lucky kid he had been used to seeing the past few days, attacking and pouncing on him and suddenly scurrying away while he was trying to serve plates of food to customers and lovely ladies.

What he saw frightened him.

Luffy's eyes were ferocious, that he understood, but the simple fact that what should've been orbs were now slits unsettled him beyond than what he was used to. The slits seemed to focus and defocus on the figure of the enemy pirate, sometimes he thought that the irises themselves changed color to something similar to yellow or gold, perhaps orange? But, either way, changing eye colors without the use of contacts was impossible, but, he had just discovered that the kid was made up rubber. It was possible that that was an effect of eating the devil fruit, but what relation did rubber have with changing eye colors?

Besides the eyes, his fists were unclenching, his fingers twisting around in a manner that resembled for too much to strangling. His fists, his arms, his torso all the way around his body were shaking violently.

"Hey…" What was his name again? If he remembered correctly, the swordsman had called him 'Luffy', so he went with that, "Hey, Luffy…? You okay there?" he reached out to grab Luffy's wrist, but pulled away when he saw Luffy flinch.

Luffy looked at him, but his eyes were large again, as if nothing had changed, "Hmm?" He hummed. "Nah, just gotta beat this guy up."

Don listened in on their conversation, his eyes and body still trembling, "He's a useless idiot. He lost sight of his objectives and disobeyed my orders. Seeing as how he may repeat his failures again in the future, killing him right now on the spot is how I show my love."

The pirates and chefs murmured from everywhere, but upon hearing Patty and Carne's voices, Sanji snapped his head around and asked Patty if he had some antidote, and while Patty confirmed, he added that it was mainly used for food poisoning and pointed out the fact that the man in his arms was the enemy, but Sanji growled at him before he could continue and ordered him to bring it over as fast as he could.

As Patty prepared to turn around and retrieve what Sanji had asked, Zeff appeared behind him and sighed, "You idiot. Just put that mask on him now. It must contain at least a bit of an antidote of some sort." He turned to Patty and Carne, "Take him to the second floor and have him breathe with that mask. If there's even the slightest chance of still saving him, then that's the first step to take."

As Sanji listened to Zeff's orders and placed the gas mask on Gin, he realized that the two chefs hadn't moved an inch, he scowled, "Patty! Carne! Move your asses!"

They immediately charged towards him, whimpering like wounded dogs who were forced to do more work.

Luffy stared at the scene, his fists clenching tighter as he looked away. When Sanji had asked him if he was okay, the heat had vanished, but it was slowly returning again. He could feel the tips of his fingers and toes burning up, as if he was slowly stepping into lava. Despite this, he bit his lip and said, "Don't you dare die, Gin."

He could feel his whole body burn again, this time, he felt as if he were being scorched in every possible location, even his eyes. "Don't you dare let yourself be killed by a guy like him. Hang in there with sheer willpower, got it? Because I'll send him flying in the meanwhile."

Gin struggled to convince Luffy not to go, but his words were undistinguishable because of the mask and his previous weak state.

The neko took a step forward, unclenching his hand and letting the blood drip freely onto the floor and run through his fingers. It made him feel somewhat better, now that he could feel something colder on one part of his body, but as he took another step, he heard shuffling and a crack, realizing that Sanji had moved. Afterwards, he felt a hand latch onto his wrist once again, but he didn't mind. In fact, it seemed to provide cold and comfort than anything else.

"Calm down, you idiot! Charging directly at him is exactly what he wants! You'll get yourself killed!" Luffy's hand was hot. That was the first thing Sanji noticed. The second thing he noticed what that the monstrous look Luffy had before returned, and it looked twice as bad.

Luffy stared at Don Krieg, watching him like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to attack. He could feel Sanji's grip lessen, and he had a good idea why. With the aura he had and the look he imagined he was wearing right then, he understood why a human would fear a monster like him. He took in a breath, ready to reply in a more soothing voice, but it came out not like he had expected. "I'm not gonna die."

His voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. Not necessarily belonging to a demon, but to a person who hadn't drunk anything in so long and had a naturally low voice. When Sanji's hand released his wrist hastily, he didn't blame him. He honestly did sound like a monster ready to kill and confident in his skills.

The neko didn't give Sanji a chance to reply. Instead, he pushed his own body to the floor causing him to land on all fours. This gained questionable looks, but when he leaped off the platform, he landed in front of Krieg and with a feral growl, he punched the pirate right in the stomach, surprising everyone who had blinked and shocking those who had seen the whole thing.

"Where'd he go?" someone asked.

A pirate responded by pointing at the teenager, standing triumphantly in front of Krieg.

"When did he get there? A second hadn't even passed!"

Luffy heard clacking again, and knew immediately the ammo in the shield was changing, so he pounced away and landed on the mast, once again on all fours. Krieg stood up, an angry yet shocked expression clear on his face. He pointed the shield at Luffy, missiles shooting out of the golden item.

As the missiles started to charge at Luffy, the raven simply stood there, eyeing every single one that he managed to see. When the missiles seemed to be only inches away, Luffy could hear Sanji shouting out his name. Catching sight of one in front of his right eye, he charged and slapped the missile away with the back of his hand, causing it to explode the water where it had landed.

As the water began to cascade down, Luffy charged at full speeds towards Krieg, one more hitting him on his left shoulder and the other one he had pulled from the side of his waist, now holding it in his hand. Running at higher speeds, he threw the missile in his hand towards the enemy pirate, then smashed the surface of the water causing a waterfall of seawater to rain down near Krieg.

He could hear Don Krieg murmur something about him using his own trick against him, but he paid no heed to it as he jumped through the water, his arm outstretched behind him.

Don Krieg smirked and pulled out a cape covered in sharp spikes, causing Sanji and the chefs to cry out, now finding the situation helpless, but Luffy continued to fly towards him.

As the neko neared the pirate and his fist starting to close the distance between them, Don Krieg's smirk vanished as his visible skin began to cover itself in sweat. The spikes on the cape seemed to grow a layer of red over each one and the cape itself, appearing as if it was burning. Once Luffy was near, the spikes seemed to melt into the metal, globs of burning metal landing on the floor and the drops that landed on Krieg caused him to wince in pain.

Luffy brought his fist forwards directed at Don Krieg, smashing it through the heated cape and hitting his target square on the cheek, shattering the cape of metal spikes and bring a firework of blood on both sides of the cape. Although the spikes had been shattered or turned to liquid, Luffy's hand ached. It burned and the blood spilling from the multiple wounds seemed to turn black. Don Krieg, on the other hand, had crashed on the railing on the far end of the ship, cracking the rails but had somehow managed to stay aboard.

"He managed to bring our Don down!" The pirates splashed in the water, surprised and terrified by the strength of the teenager.

Sanji stared at the scene, pure shock in his face. He massaged his hands unknowingly, never wanting to feel something as bad as losing something as precious like his hands. His hands were his life. If would never do something as reckless to lose his hands. He, as a chef, had a soft spot for hands. If someone's hands were bruised badly to the point where they wouldn't be able to use it anymore, he would feel sympathetic for that person, even if that person was the enemy.

Shaking his head and brushing away his shock, he shouted at nobody in particular, "W-What a reckless guy!"

"He hit that with his bare hands!"

"Owww!" The chefs as well started to shake or massage their hands, few actually holding it away from the scene.

"Don Krieg was knocked down again!"

"What… what's with that guy!? He punched Don Krieg to the other side of the ship!"

"I've never even seen the Don on his knees before, much less lying flat on his face!"

"That kid just punched our Don right in the face! Not to mention it was through that spike-covered cape!"

Luffy's hand spilled scorching blood, once again clenching and unclenching his hands as he walked towards the fallen body of Don Krieg. Once Luffy was right behind Krieg, he smirked and grabbed hold of the missile in his shoulder, twisting and tugging at it, "Now, is this place really my grave… or your grave?" with a final twist and a sickening crack, Luffy managed to pull out the missile. It was obvious that the missile had embedded itself in his bone. "Mine… or yours?"

The neko held the bloody missile with his bloody hand in front of him like some sort of trophy, his smirk showing off all his sharp fangs that could easily be used to tear into the flesh of anything breathing. The grin on his face widened, "Which is it?!" His voice was deadly. He walked closer towards the fallen man, crouching down and forcefully stabbing an opening in his armor that exposed his arm, causing the pirate to yell in pain.

Blood oozed from the new wound on Don Krieg's body, but Luffy didn't care. His brain and mind and all sense of rationality seemed to melt away from the heat burning inside his head, turning everything into a pile of goop. The only sole nerve of actual thinking only had a single order, and that was to end the life of the man he so desperately wanted gone.

He grabbed the man by the neck, pulling him higher despite the fact that the missile planted into him had also been embedded into the floor, so it tore off the skin and muscle when he had raised him higher.

Don Krieg chocked, blood spilling from his mouth as Luffy continued to smile. His hands were burning, and he could already see red markings form around the neck, both from the tightness of his clutch and from the searing heat in his aura. "This isn't _my_ grave." Luffy smirked, "I would say it's more like _yours_. Don't you think?"

●ω●

Sanji's eyes were wide.

Everything he was seeing was shocking him to a new level. At first, his shock was simply the look Luffy wore, then it was the way he attacked, then it was how he could bare the pain of missiles in his body, then it was how he managed to bring down Don Krieg, the after _that_ , it was how the cape somehow melted (reminding him of how hot Luffy's hand was when he had touched it, but it didn't _burn_. It was simply uncomfortable) to how strong Luffy's punches actually were.

But, none of those things surprised him as much when he got a good look at Luffy's face. It was in pure glee, blood splattered on his face and matted his hair. The red liquid seemed charred on his hand and the melted and shattered metal on the floor was an indication that the two were related. But he couldn't shake the fact that the innocent kid from before had turned into a monster that was out for blood.

From far away, he could see the red glow surround him, but it was extremely faint. In fact, at first he had thought it was his mind playing tricks on him since he believed that Luffy was the cause of everything burning. But, if that were indeed the case, then shouldn't everything else be burning or melting as well? Like the wood planks or perhaps cause steam in the water?

He just couldn't wrap his mind around this. It was too complicated. He knew nothing about the straw hat teenager yet he was trying to figure out too many things that he was sure he was never going to find out unless Luffy told him directly.

"What the fuck…" He cursed in shock. He clutched his side. It was still containing broken ribs after all.

Zeff walked next to Sanji, a wooden crutch placed underneath his armpit.

Zeff sighed, a vague idea of what was happening currently on his mind. Despite the fact that the straw hat kid was a prime example of an amazing leader, the fact that he could end up like this bothered him. But then again, he only became like this when somebody close to him got hurt, so, even in this state, he would never hurt anybody in his crew. A small smile tugged his lips, "Watch him carefully, Sanji." He said.

He didn't have to say it, since Sanji was already staring at the scene of Luffy holding up Krieg by the neck, "'Why did he become like this?' I'm sure you're asking yourself that right now. Aren't you?"

Sanji looked at him with shocked eyes, "How'd you know?"

Zeff chuckled. "I was thinking that at first too, but then I came to the realization that he became a monster when someone close to him was betrayed and in danger. It happened not too long ago too, only a few hours ago." Sanji continued to stare at him, getting an idea of where he was going, "The swordsman who fought Hawk-Eyes was near death, and so the boy simply became a monster to protect his friend who he thought had died."

Sanji thought about it for a moment, "Yeah. That's true…"

"Don't you find that honorable?"

Sanji stiffened, not knowing how to respond to that, "I… I don't know. I guess it is, but seeing how many people will judge you if you suddenly go on a killing rampage… I really doubt many people see it as 'honorable'." He turned to Zeff. "Why exactly is it you want me to travel with him?" he said in a voice that had a mix of accuse but curiosity as well. There was no sign of anger, but it was understandable to think so.

The head chef stared into the black pupils of the second best cook, wondering for a moment on how to respond, then he looked back at the boy holding up the pirate, "Because he's someone who you can trust and never feel betrayed. He is an idiot, I'll admit that, but what's the harm of having an idiot with a caring soul as your leader and friend?"

Sanji seemed to think about this, wondering what the benefits were of having such a captain. The kid seemed to enjoy being in the presence of his friends, and when they were hurt, well, he saw the outcome of that story. From the previous days, he had already figured out that the kid was weird in more ways than one, from the way he played to the way he fought.

Pouncing on him and suddenly scurrying away reminded him of how pets played with their owners or friends, urging the other to play with him.

Like a _cat_.

But, when he fought, he attacked like a vicious animal. At first, he continued to get hit over and over again, but afterwards, his aura and body seemed to change. He didn't question it at first. But now, it seemed to pique his interest now that he didn't seem to have any problem with killing when before he seemed to have been holding back.

"There isn't much harm, I guess." Sanji admitted, feeling a little butterfly flutter around in his stomach.

"Other than the fact he is worthy; he is a formidable opponent." Sanji looked up at Zeff, silently asking the head chef to continue, "There are guys like him every now and then. Idiots that fight to the death once they decide on a goal."

Sanji sighed, staring blankly at the scene in front of him. A short, lanky, black-haired teen holding up a man who tripled his size by the next, the same man who was known for his cruel acts and torturous ways of cheating. Luffy, the same teen who smiled and pounced on him was the same teen holding up a pirate who previously owned a large and powerful pirate. "Fight to the death…" he whispered, immediately seeing what Zeff meant.

"A guy like him is the worst enemy you can face. Whether he wins or loses this match…" Zeff chuckled, "I like guys like him."

Sanji continued to stare, a smile working on his lips, "I like him, too."

His smiled faltered when he saw Krieg twitch violently once, grabbing onto the wrist holding him by the neck. "If this place…" his voice sounded dead now. And there were a lot of gurgles in those simple three words, "Isn't your grave…" with his other hand, Don Krieg grabbed a shield from his shoulder, rapidly lunging it towards Luffy, "Whose is it?!"

Luffy immediately let go of his victim's neck, forming his hand into a fist and punching the shield before it had even progressed an inch, the Wootz shield moaning out before a large crack was imprinted on the shield. The moan became a momentarily quick screech, causing everyone to cover their ears.

During the quick shrill, Luffy growled loudly. Because of Don Krieg's lasting shock, Luffy took that moment to grab the hem of the shield and pull himself upwards, pulling the shield back in the process, leaving the large pirate in point-blank sight, "Gotcha." Luffy grinned. He pulled his fist back without the use of his devil fruit and punched his face, bringing Don Krieg onto the floor, pieces of his shield cracking off, although unsuccessfully breaking the shield completely.

Floods of odors flooded the neko's nostrils, each one causing his smirk to grow a bit wider. Humiliation, nervousness, fear, anger, confusion. He knew he was humiliating his enemy, and normally he wouldn't do such a thing, especially on purpose, but what was the harm? In fact, it was almost fun. He tapped his foot on the floor, accelerating the speed each time he felt something form inside of him roar like the maniac his body wanted to become.

Inside him, just pure joy partied, his growing unstableness feeding off of the humiliation that his enemy was letting off, letting him know that he was winning.

Sanji and Zeff stared on in fascination, not daring to miss anything else or any other punch or kick thrown. From what they had seen before, that Wootz armor was overpowered, not a single scratch on it, well, before Luffy punched it. Now, a large crack was embedded onto the metal, and they really doubted that it would get out alive.

Realizing that Don Krieg wasn't moving, Sanji took that opportunity to steal some glances at everyone else wondering what their reactions were gonna be, and unsurprisingly, everyone wore shocked expressions, mesmerized by the crack now printed on the shield as if it was One Piece itself. Sanji was gonna turn back around and watch the fight again, but he got a better look at their faces, was realized that not only were they surprised, they were _scared_.

He stared at them, counting off all the possible causes as to why they would be scared, especially the pirates who wore horrified faces. Perhaps, they thought that the kid would beat them into a pulp since they were on the same ship of Don Krieg? It was very likely, and the most plausible reason, but judging by how Luffy was acting, Sanji didn't blame them. If he were part of the pirate group as well, he would also be terrified.

He looked at Zeff, who was staring at him as well, "They're scared." The head chef said, his arms positioning themselves differently on the crutches. "You noticed that too, didn't you?"

Sanji nodded, but he didn't want to stop watching the two pirates fight, or more accurately, the one-sided fight of the teenager. He knew Zeff also didn't want to talk that much either, so he didn't bother looking back at the older chef.

And what he saw bothered him a bit more.

Luffy appeared to be… in some sort of spasm, his arms and torso shaking violently while he stood, even appearing to be doing it on purpose because he didn't seem to be in any sort of pain, no shouts, no screams. In fact, a thin smirk was on his face, replacing what should've been a scream.

The wood underneath the teenager began to steam, as well as a meter circumference around him began to blur, as if it were scorching or burning.

Don twitched for a second, before letting out a powerful battle cry. He grabbed the cracked shield on the floor and removed the other from his shoulder, slamming both plates together. A clicking sound was heard, along with a few gears, and judging from the multiple clicks at the very beginning, the two had latched together by steel.

Luffy studied him, and his ears perked high up when he saw Don Krieg turn rapidly around, facing him. When he saw the larger pirate bring down the two shields together onto the floor, holding it by a bronze rod that definitely wasn't there before, he jumped high and latched onto a broken mast pole, studying the weapon. Smoke engulfed his sight, a loud boom echoing in his ears. He could feel the pole warm up quicker than normal, but he paid no heed to it.

"It's the great War Spear!" A pirate said, and now that Luffy had a better view of it, he saw why it was called a 'spear'.

The shields were attached to the bronze rod from before, similar to an over-sized lollipop, but sticking out from the end of the shields was a large, shark tooth-shaped blade, like the upper half of an average spear. Smoke plumed out from where the spear had sliced in to, a large crack parting the wood boards into two.

"He took it out! Our Don's most powerful weapon!"

Don Krieg removed the spear from the ground, billions of splinters littered around, "I'll look forward to seeing how long you can keep away from this, hammer brat." He looked at Luffy, who had now calmed down somewhat, "Unlike my earlier measly spears that you could afford to take two or three hits from, this spear's in a whole 'nother league."

Luffy glared at the spear, smelling large amounts of gunpowder that he had previously assumed was an extra-large sash to keep his ammunition running, but it appeared to have a completely different use—to explode at the end of a spear.

"Explosions… huh." He stared at the weapon, glaring, "Wouldn't the explosions break it?" He said in a strong voice. It was most likely that it would never break before, but that was then. In the condition it was in now, it would probably crack on its own, though he couldn't guarantee that.

"As if. This spear can withstand anything. Touch this and you'll be blown to smithereens!" He raised the battle spear high in the air, bellowing a loud war cry.

Once again, Luffy felt something churn inside him, and his pupils turned into slits for a mere second. He reached out and grabbed the spear from the mast, but it proved to be useless since he was blown away, his whole body burning and charred. As he was about to land from the impact, he noticed he was near water, so using the rest of his strength, he stretched his arm and grabbed onto a nearby railing, "Dammit."

Luffy searched around, trying to locate his enemy even though he had a hurting head and hand. Once he caught sight of him, he felt his body numb for a complete second, each interval of time would bring a longer numbness.

Sanji noticed this and cursed, "Damn, the longer he goes on, the worse off he'll be—he's losing too much blood!"

"It's the end of the line for you." Don Krieg said, a shark grin on his face.

Luffy studied his body, feeling a bit overheated from his hoodie, "Damn it, I can't fight at full strength by jumping across these little 'islands'…" he didn't even care if he was losing blood, his body would automatically take care of that. His current problem was that he had limited power because of all the small sized platforms offered for the placement of his feet, and the battle spear that his enemy held was definitely another problem to both his health and the situation beforehand.

"Looks like the Don will settle this fight quickly enough…" a pirate said.

"That 'Great' War Spear' of his creates a stronger explosion the stronger he swings it." A pirate stated.

Luffy quickly ducked a stab from the spear of Krieg, almost scathing him.

"What monstrous strength! Even though that spear made from his two shoulders plates weighs over one ton, he swings it around like it's nothing!"

"That's undeniable proof that our Don's the strongest!" a pirate said, but his voice had a very strong hint of uncertainty, and another pirate spoke what everyone thought.

"But that other kid managed to crack one of the shields with a single punch…"

All the pirates silenced after that statement, not knowing how to respond to that.

Don Krieg slashed once more, Luffy dodging the attack with more ease than before. As the neko jumped back, he noticed that he was nearing the border of the broken ship, and the large crack implanted in the ground caused the inevitable slip. Krieg took that opportunity to swing again, but fortunately, it had missed the neko.

His body had cooled off, now that the smoke from the explosion from before had let off all the smoke breathing off him. Luffy took in a breath mid-air and concentrated the flopping inside his body, desperately searching for the engine that seemed to fuel him with so much glee and happiness while he fought. In a normal state of mind (if you consider Luffy having one), he wouldn't dare to resort to using _that_ , his _kyōbō_ , to fight, since he had already seen the consequences of using it. The small, missile-like spear that used to be embedded in Krieg's arm was enough proof that he would go insane from using it, but, he wasn't completely himself right now. Simply in a state of mind of control and self-need.

And besides, it would activate either way.

The _Pain-Induced Kyōbō_ would activate when wounds litter his body and when blood drains from their vessels. He was currently lacking blood, so there was no doubt it would activate any second now. The strongest mode too… so if he forced it on now, he would lose his mind.

But, right now, he didn't care.

Right now, he only wanted to win.

And that was what he was going to do, no matter what.

"DIE!" Don Krieg swung again, but had missed completely. Luffy was nowhere in front of him, instead, he was still mid-air, behind him. Once Don Krieg had noticed this, Luffy seemed to vanish again, and before anyone could blink or even realize what was happening, there was a loud, echoing moan coming from the cracked side of the Spear, pure agony resonating from the cracked Wootz shield. The shield quivered slightly, and before they saw it coming, millions of shards of the shield were scattered on the shield. The remnants shun brightly, brilliant gleams of the sun shining on each one as if they were each prizes.

The neko landed on the floor, staring blankly at the deformed spear in his enemy's hands. "There's only one side left." Luffy cocked his head to the side noticeably, "It looks really dumb like that. You can see what's inside, though! That's really cool!" Luffy said, breaking into a wide smile.

"You…!" Don Krieg shook in anger and shock, evident because of Luffy's nose.

"What's wrong?" Luffy said, stepping on the shards on the floor, "Cat got your tongue?" he giggled a little, finding it ironic how literal that was.

Don Krieg scowled and brought back his Spear behind him, the point of the weapon facing Luffy. A loud sizzling sound could be heard and through the wide opening that allowed a clear view inside, Luffy could see the machinery work around, gears and cogwheels turning and activating clicks. The smell of gunpowder was unmistakable, and Luffy prepared himself for the attack that would soon be launched at him.

Each time the weapon hit a structure or a base, then it would activate an explosion, so that meant that if Luffy were to hit it anywhere on the spear, then it would explode, wouldn't it? The raven tensed his body to lessen the pain, and if memory serves, then the _Pain-Induced Kyōbō_ definitely did lessen it. Well, he was about to find out anyway.

When the tip of the spear was about to make contact to his chest, he punched on both sides of the blade, wondering what would happen, but judging from the shark grin that Don Krieg was currently wearing, Luffy supposed that it indeed was going to explode right in his face. Backing away his head, he released the spear quickly but it exploded before he could jump out of the way.

The raven was blown away onto another platform, but he grinned when he felt what should've been a vast amount of unbearable pain to be like a simple scratch. He coughed a bit, since smoke had entered his lungs, and apart from the fact that he was completely charred similar to a grilled fish, he didn't feel much pain at all. He stood up and dusted himself off, sighing a bit whiningly. "Man, I didn't think it would blow me away that far." He said when he realized he was on another platform a few meters away from his enemy. He laughed, finding something funny in his current situation.

Don Krieg had an expression of complete distress and frustration, "JUST FALL DOWN AND STAY DOWN, YOU MAGGOT!" he walked towards Luffy, already bringing back his spear to swing once more like a baseball bat.

Luffy glared at the weapon and exhaled softly, feeling the tip of his tail tremble a bit, "One more…" he said just as softly, and when Don Krieg slammed the weapon into Luffy, the neko grit his teeth hard and released his punch, slamming his own fist onto the broad of the blade, but the explosion once again caught him right in the center. He kept his eyes closed. Just because he couldn't feel much pain didn't mean it didn't actually cause harm to him.

When he was sent flying and crashed onto the floor, his vision began to blur. He brought his hand in front of his face and realized the reason as to why. His hand was caked in fresh blood, more liquid mixing into the tracks of the previous trails of blood now running down his whole arm. Behind Don Krieg, if Luffy looked up, he could see the Baratie, and because of the placement of his body, he could easily pick up sounds coming from there, but the loudest one had come from Sanji, who had yelled out his name.

Strange. He didn't remember when he had first said his name. Effects of the kyōbō? Probably. No. That _was_ the reason.

Don Krieg chuckled victoriously, a nasty grin on his lips, "Have you finally realized that the strongest man in the world is none other than me!?"

The pirates cheered, throwing their fists in the water, while the chefs mourned and shuffled in the water uncomfortably, not knowing what to do now that their only hope was down. Luffy sat there, unmoving, and sighed. He let out a loud scoff, loud enough for everyone to hear, and raised his legs high to force his body off from the ground. Slamming his foot into the ground, the vibration caused the spear to tremble until shattered like glass, the shards satisfying to see.

"W-What!? My great War Spear is…!" he glared at Luffy, but it had no chance of beating what he had done before, "What did you do?!"

Luffy grinned, smoke fuming out from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth, "I punched it two times. Now, get ready!" he studied the platform he was on and smiled, approving of the large and spacious size of the terrace. "'Cause now that I'm on this wide open space, I'll send you flying!"

Don Krieg stared at him with angry eyes, "What?!"

"With the spear-tip broken, that's nothing but a bomb on a stick! I've reduced its power by half." Luffy said, standing in a confident pose. The blood from his hands dripped more than his other arm, and now that he found himself abandoning the kyōbō mode, he was starting to feel the burn.

"Is that what you think?"

The pirates in the water shrieked, not believing, or not wanting to believe, what they had witnessed, "U-Unbelievable! To think that Don Krieg's most powerful weapon: The Great War Spear would be broken!"

On the other hand, the chefs cheered, gawking with admire at Luffy, "He did it! He really _is_ amazing!"

Don Krieg ignored them completely, focusing only on Luffy, who soaked in the praise he was receiving from the waters, "Considering that even a mere bomb on a stick can easily blow you away, I'd say that I still have more than enough power to win!" Luffy was about to respond with a sassy reply that most of it didn't really hurt, but now that the kyōbō had mostly gone, he was starting to feel the damage, so he decided it'd be best not to say anything, "Not only that, you're bleeding all over and even took two blasts from my Great Battle Spear. Seems to me you're bluffing."

Luffy shook his head and with a childish voice, he stuck out his tongue out, "Nuh-uh!" if he started purring, his wounds would somewhat heal, so blood most likely wasn't a problem.

Sanji, thinking that Luffy was one-hundred percent human, although he didn't seem like one, agreed with Don Krieg for once. "He's right. Luffy should be on the verge of collapsing! With those wounds, if he takes even one more blast from that spear, he'll be killed!" Zeff stared at him, a growing grin on his face, "Damn it… with all those weapons and armor, it's almost impossible to beat him!"

Zeff's grin became a full-on smirk, "But you know, Sanji… no matter how many hundreds of weapons or armor equipped with, they're no match for that 'one special spear' that comes from your guts."

Sanji looked at him, his uninterested face once again present, but his eyes betrayed such emotion, now that they were filled with curiosity, so Zeff took that as liberty to continue, "On the pirates' battlefield where life and death are decided, the one who fears death and hesitates for even an instant shall fall to their doom."

The smoker looked down, now observing the floor around Zeff's feet, "What do you mean by that?"

Zeff sighed, clearly agitated by the fact that Sanji never seemed to understand what he meant when he first said them, but he continued despite the annoyance, "Within that boy, if nothing else…" Zeff looked at Luffy, and Sanji followed. The teen was grinning, "Lies no hesitation." Sanji stared on, as if mesmerized by what he was seeing behind that innocent, blood-caked face. "Perhaps it stems from his complete preparedness to survive no matter what…" Zeff looked at Sanji, knowing what more to add, "Or his conviction that fears no death…" he finished, smirking.

Sanji immediately stilled, shocked, "Conviction…?" he wanted to sound surprised, but his voice came out soft. What possible belief was it that the kid held so confidently? It held no fear of death, and Sanji couldn't place his finger on it. Then something clicked, like whenever you're not trying to think of something but then it hits you—just as fast it came. His conviction was his powerful belief that he was far stronger, capable enough of following his goal— _dream_ — to becoming Pirate King. He bowed his head and sighed.

Don Krieg let out a loud growl, causing Luffy to glare at him with deadly eyes. He raised his one-shielded weapon and charged towards Luffy, ready to swing again to finish what he had set out to do ever since they spoke. "Say your prayers! From the moment you went against me, your death was set in stone!"

Luffy growled back and stuck out his tongue again, "As if!"

The larger pirate swung down, but Luffy smiled and jumped, leaving a small dent in the ground as he went up. Although he didn't feel anything, the weapon still managed to explode so it must've touched something, but that's all he really paid attention to, unlike someone else.

Sanji had noticed something else, "Hey, geezer, the explosions are weaker, aren't they?" he obviously saw the difference. Only a blind person would miss it, or an idiot, but he wasn't much of either, so he saw it a hundred percent.

"Seems like the damage already done to it is finally takings its toll on the 'Great Battle Spear.'" Both studied large clumps of gunpowder spilling out from inside the weapon. It weirded Sanji out a bit, now that he thought about it as the human body whereas the intestines and organs—perhaps bones—spilled out from the other half of the missing body, as if you were to cut a human in half. The gunpowder spilled from a large metal container that seemed to have been caught in one of its own explosions, judging from the black surrounding the hole, and it resembled far too much to an organ spilling its insides, like sugar from its pack. That was a nicer way to think about it.

"Hit me if you can!" Luffy said, latching onto the rails of the sails.

"Damn monkey…!" Don Krieg swung again, smashing the mast pole while Luffy continued to swing around mimicking the sounds of a monkey, but halted when he felt the mast fall. He snapped the pole he was on before and took it down with him, using it as a fishing spear hunters use to catch fish.

As the wood pole charged Don Krieg, the man simply raised his fist (similar to Spider-Man) and switched something that caused the item on his wrist to click, "Useless." Once that was said, flames shot out from the mouth of the mini cannon on his wrist, charring completely through the wood.

"A flamethrower?! How many weapons does this guy have on him?!" Sanji said, now sick of how many weapons their enemy possessed.

Luffy on the other hand, took in a deep breath and punched the air, faster and faster until it appeared that he had multiple fists flying in one direction. He started to punch Don Krieg who was below him with his 'multiple' fists, but each one only brought a loud clanging noise.

Don Krieg laughed when the barrage stopped, "You're so weak now! What happened to that previous strength that broke my shield?! All your attacks are futile before my Wootz armor!"

Luffy ignored his bragging, knowing full well why his strength diminished, but he wasn't going to allow something that small to get to him, "And…" he stretched his hand behind him, charged the larger pirate and punched him, "Bullet!" the armor clanged again, hissing a bit and ending in a short groan. The arm that he used to punch was the same that had been punctured by the small missile and that had its bone cracked, but not having healed completely, blood splattered from the wound, dots of red decorating the floor and the Wootz armor.

"Don!" the pirates chorused, remembering the monstrous strength Luffy possessed and still haven't figured out that he wasn't at that level of power anymore.

"You insolent brat!" Don Krieg swung his spear, exploding the floor but managing to blow Luffy away. Luffy let out a confused noise, short and barely audible. Those explosions barely hurt anymore!

Landing, Luffy stood up and tapped his feet on the floor, checking the rest of his body to see if anything was different, "I'm not in _kyōbō_ …? Then why'd it not hurt?" Luffy wondered, but after confirming that he indeed wasn't in his _Pain Induced Kyōbō_ , he looked up and studied Krieg's armor, turning and twisting his ears to catch the slightest sound that his armor showed that it was near breaking.

"Absolutely, completely, utterly futile!" Luffy chuckled. He sounded like Coby right there, except for the 'futile' part, "As if the greatest armor would break from hundreds of punches from a mere monkey!"

Luffy stared at the armor, and once his ears picked up a quick and soft screech, not audible for humans, he smiled, "I'd say I'm just about there." Luffy knew he was close, but the armor only needed to be punched a few more times before it would actually show a dent, so he decided he had to do just that.

Looking around, he noticed that Don Krieg had managed to get himself on top of the broken mast pole, but he didn't question it, "Can't you see that the greatest armor and weaponry equates to the greatest might?! And those that defy the strong are doomed to die, hammer brat." The pirate then threw many small, black spheres, and Luffy knew immediately what they were, remembering how they caused enormous explosions even in the water.

The chefs screamed in terror, "He's going to throw those bombs down and destroy that whole platform! Run away, kid!"

Luffy heard them over the cheering of the pirates, but after this, he was really starting to dislike bombs. Don Krieg continued, "Only the strong survive!"

Luffy growled and jumped onto the pole, bringing his fists behind him until they touched the ground and charged towards his opponent, "Meaning me of course!" he could hear Sanji yell at him to get away and not to charge towards him, but he had no intentions of doing so. He didn't necessarily have a well thought out plan, unless you counted simply using offense as a strategy slash plan, but Luffy didn't plan. He fought, and he fought until he won.

"Gomu Gomu no…"

Don Krieg grinned, bringing his spear above him and ready to slam it down on Luffy, "How useless… because that's exactly what I thought you'd do!" he brought his spear down on Luffy, causing a greater explosion than before, miraculously not breaking the weapon, "There are some things you can't overcome with willpower alone." He finished, a shark grin on his face, clearly thinking that he had won.

Unbeknownst to him, Luffy completely ignored the explosion. This time, he would admit, it did hurt, and more than normal. His body was beginning to fatigue, but he was going to continue. The small bombs still hadn't reached the floor and exploded, but Luffy didn't have the time to think about when they were going to explode. For all he knew, they could be duds.. The neko passed through the smoke, his fists still near the floor, and an angry growl on his face.

Once he reached in front of Krieg, he released the friction he was using to keep his arms in place, and punched Krieg hard on the stomach with his lightning-quick hands, "BAZOOKA!"

Don Krieg was knocked off the mast pole and was in mid-air, but he still managed to let out a large laugh, "Your attack was useless again! This is the extent of your strength! But I'll compliment you for managing to put a small crack on my armor! Now you can die happily!" the small bombs he had thrown before exploded, the amount that he used caused the whole ship to explode and disappear in large plumes and clouds of smoke.

Luffy jumped off the mast—hands of smoke following him and grabbing onto him—positioning himself above Don Krieg in mid-air, and took in a deep breath. "Gomu Gomu no…" he was going to do it again, and this time, it _was_ going to work, no matter what.

Don Krieg certainly didn't expect him to be alive after that explosion, judging from his expression and choice of word, "Wha—!?"

Luffy smiled a wide smile, his eyes missing out on the innocence, and made his vanish disappear like a bug in an ocean, replacing it with a very noticeable scowl, "BAZOOKA!" he slammed his fists into Krieg's armor again, the results fascinating to his eyes.

Ginormous chunks of Don Krieg's armor broke into many pieces, big and small, falling down like large chunks of golden snow. Krieg's body, on the other hand, probably received multiple wounds from the cuts of his armor, judging from the fact that he spat out blood like a fountain.

The attack sent Don Krieg falling down like a fallen plane or bird, the pieces of armor remaining on his body breaking off because of the lack of support from the rest of the Wootz. Luffy grinned, exhaling soft and cold amounts of air to cool him.

The pirates chorused Don's name, not believing what they were seeing. "DON!" to everyone, even the chefs, it seemed impossible to think that this man would and could be defeated, but they were witnessing such a phenomenon. The chefs cheered, content that they had won.

Sanji was in complete shock.

He couldn't believe what he witnessed. The innocent, happy-go-lucky teenager that pounced on him multiple times before had defeated a man who was well known in their sea.

But, the cheering halted and so did the cries when Don Krieg yelled out to Luffy, "IT'S TOO EARLY FOR CELEBRATIONS YET!"

Luffy was surprised, to say the least, and had been completely oblivious to the fact that there still remained one weapon, or better described as, a trap, left in the weapons around his wrist. "Ah! He's still alive!"

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" it was obvious that Don Krieg was desperate, elevating his voice to a completely whole new level.

The net released from the machine around his wrist trapped Luffy, bringing him down with him. The neko tried to rip apart the net, but found that he couldn't. The pirate started laughing like an insane man, "You can't escape from my iron net! BELOW US IS THE SEA! THE FIGHT IS OVER, HAMMER BRAT! ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DRAG YOU DOWN UNDER AND YOU'LL DROWN TO YOUR DEATH! THE ONE WHO LAUGHS AT THE END IS ALWAYS ME!" he said.

Luffy struggled to free his arms and legs, but found it simple because of his elasticity. His arms and legs slipped through the holes of the net, and glared at the falling pirate underneath him, "As long as I can still stretch my arms and legs, victory's still mine!" he pulled his own body around his abdomen and spun his chest and under, causing his body to resemble a spring. His legs reached Krieg soon enough, and he grabbed Krieg's face securely using the ramp of his feet. Luffy grinned. As if he was going to lose to this guy.

"How can he keep on fighting even now." Zeff said, causing Sanji to look at him with rapid movements, as if he had been surprised by his presence. "Is that what you were wondering?" Sanji frowned, wondering how the hell Zeff had managed to voice out his thoughts twice now.

Don Krieg ordered his men to help him, and help they did. They pulled out crossbows from and aimed at Luffy, but Luffy ignored the threat. He focused on defeating Krieg and yelled, "This time, it'll really be the end!"

As the archers were about to shoot, Sanji charged at the group and kicked the faces of two pirates, supporting himself on their faces, "Quit it, or I'll kill the lot of you." Immediately, all the pirates silenced themselves and hid their crossbows, not wanting to end up like their comrades.

Luffy released the tension used to keep together his stretching, causing for his whole body—chest and under—to spin faster and faster, and because of his grip on Krieg, he had become the victim of the rapid spinning. He yelled out in what was obvious discomfort, but that word is an understatement.

He swung Don Krieg upwards, "Gomu Gomu no…" he redirected himself towards the fins of the Baratie, knowing that it was going to hurt more than water. Don Krieg's yells became louder, obviously because of the spinning. Luffy then swung Don Krieg downwards towards the platform, slamming the pirate onto the wood, "Sledgehammer!" the cracking of the wooden planks vibrated the whole area, and blood splattered in a messy circle around Don Krieg's head, like a halo.

"Don Krieg!" the pirates screamed.

"Way to go!" The chefs praised.

Their cheering and booing seemed to go in circles, but it finally ended.

The neko's hoodie flew off his head, flapping as he fell closer to the sea. His hat, not having anything to secure itself on his head, wavered a bit and was blown high into the air. Sanji saw this, and felt a powerful urge to catch it, so catch it he did. He jumped off the two pirate's heads from before and reached out his hand and caught the raggedy thing, holding it close. He landed on the fin of the Baratie, studying the straw hat before walking towards Zeff and watching Luffy fall into the ocean.

But, as he watched on, he couldn't help but see two triangular shapes on the top of his head, as if he were wearing some sort of ears.

Then it slammed into him harder than anything before in his life.

"Neko…?" No. That was impossible. Sure, the kid was weird, but he couldn't be one of the rarest species of human out there, could he? No. He just couldn't believe his theory, no matter how probable or how much wishful thinking he had. It was an absurd idea for such a thing to be roaming around… like what he sought out.

Luffy smiled, his eyes closing. He saw Sanji grab his hat, and an odor of confusion arose from him, so he could only speculate what had happened, and his best bet was that the blonde saw. His hoodie was in a worse shape than he imagined, tattered and charred in various places. The rim of his hoodie was ripped up, and he was sure that once he fell into the water, his clothes wouldn't be able to stay on him securely. He fell into the water and immediately, he could feel the effects of the sea takes its toll on him.

Zeff stared at Sanji, having heard what Sanji had said, but didn't bring it up, instead, he turned to look at where Luffy fell and chose a different topic. "If the fleet that Krieg amassed, along with the hundreds of his weapons, armors, and even his poison gas can be seen as his 'might', then the 'spear' of that boy, is his own brand of might all the same."

Sanji sighed, he was tired. "Spear…"

 _No matter how many hundreds of weapons or armor one is equipped with, they're no match for that 'one special spear' that comes from your guts._

"Conviction…" He said, remembering that word and how well it fit in with Luffy, like two destined puzzle pieces that had been lost from the box.

The pirates swam towards their captain, wondering out loud how it was possible and what had happened.

"I happen to know of a certain idiot who'd stifle that very spear for no good reason." Zeff said, walking towards the entrance of the Baratie, obviously referencing to the blonde teenager. Sanji sighed at it. He looked back at Sanji and smiled, "What're you sitting there for? Hurry up and go rescue him 'cause he ain't coming back up on his own. Those with special abilities obtained from the devil fruits are hated by the sea and can't swim."

Sanji snapped his head back at Zeff and yelled, "Wha—! You damn geezer, you should've told me that sooner!" he removed his shoes and jacket, throwing them onto the floor and dove into the ocean, searching eagerly for that mysterious kid.

The sea water stung his eyes, but as a devil fruit user like Luffy, he imagined it was far worse. He dove deeper and deeper, large chunks and remnants of the galleon—which was now unidentifiable—dwelling in the deep blue of the ocean, as if hiding from even more destruction, but that had stopped luckily only a few seconds to minutes ago.

Even as the cook dove deeper and deeper, the air supply he garnered before he sank in to the depths was beginning to cut short. He paused his venture downwards and looked around, and after unsuccessfully seeing the red, vibrant hoodie, he knew that the teenager wasn't nearby. He wanted to sigh, but that would only be a casualty to him. Instead, he redirected himself downwards, once again motioning his limbs to bring him deeper.

His ears had been blocked and engulfed completely by the sound of a deep rumbling, sounds of squeaky bubbles usually popping when he passed by the transparent spheres. The amount of wood lessened, and that goes for his air supply as well. As he passed by a larger chunk of the ship, he looked to his right and covered his mouth, feeling the air dissipate into nothing. In front of him though, was an iron net, stuck on the jarred rims of another piece of the ship.

Inside the net in question was his objective, and he took no time to swim deeper towards him. The boy's legs and arms were out of the net, since his attack required his limbs to be out of the net, but his face was full of agony, his body void of movement—the only movement he got was from the underwater waves that wanted to rid his existence. His cheeks had a darker tint to them, most likely a blue from lack of oxygen, and seeing how the blonde himself was lacking air, the brunette was most likely having a much harder time.

He swam closer to the boy, grabbing hold of the nets where they had been caught and tugged, but it was like a mess of silver snakes coiled around wooden daggers. He grunted as he pulled, and he couldn't help but look at the pain-filled face of the teenager who saved the Baratie _and_ their lives.

He grit his teeth and swam closer, grabbing onto the nets closest to the teens chest as if wanting to tug on his hoodie to pull him up, "Hey, hang in there!" he wasted air saying those words, but he couldn't help but say them, 'Aren't you the one who refuses to die?' he thought. He wanted to say those words, but, he was missing something that allowed those words to come out, 'Isn't that what you believe in?' he remembered clearly how Luffy claimed that it wasn't going to be his grave. If that were the case, then falling down into the ocean in the same parts was technically the same thing.\

He was about to kick the net near Luffy's head when something caught his eye. On top of his head appeared to be two ears, rounded around the sides but a bit pointy near the top. They could just be strangely formed tufts of his hair, but he somehow doubted that.

He snapped out of his daze when he felt the air start to vanish completely and kicked the place where the net had been caught, the opening of the net easy to his access. He reached inside and pulled the boy out by the armpits, the black-haired boy's head on his chest, allowing him a plain view of what was on top of his head. Once completely out, he pulled one of the boy's arms around his shoulder and commenced to swim up, holding the rest of Luffy's body with his other arm.

While swimming upwards, he snuck a look at Luffy's head, staring at the two pointy ears on his head. Judging from the lack of movement they showed, in comparison to his actual hair, Sanji knew that his eyes hadn't been completely playing tricks with him. Once he got up, he would have to talk with Zeff, since he'd tell him what to do in this situation, as much as he hated to ask. But, you couldn't really blame him. Not once in his life had he ever experienced a situation where he had to make a choice of protecting the identity of a _neko_ of all things from people that he worked with daily.

He tightened his grip on Luffy's waist and continued swimming upwards, higher and higher. The air in his lungs seemed to vanish completely, but there must've been at least a small amount due to the fact that he was still moving. He continued swimming up, reminiscing when the green-haired swordsman had fought against the world's strongest swordsman because of an ambition, losing in the end. It was dumb and idiotic. But, he couldn't help but think about his own.

Near the surface, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief when billions of fish swam above him, different shapes and colors and forms and sizes. He released the rest of the air he held in him, gaping at the scene in front of him, 'All Blue?' as he continued upwards, he passed through the fish, who seemed to disappear faster than the air he had released when he saw it. But, when he saw those vast amounts of fish, was his own ambition _really_ that unworthy? He himself doubted that, wondering now if it really wasn't a bad idea to go with the now discovered neko.

Speaking of which, he still had no idea what to do when they finally got up. He guessed the best thing to do was either cover it with his hands or the suit he threw away or just letting everyone see what they had been secluded from. He wondered for a brief moment if even Zeff knew, which made sense seeing how the old geezer wouldn't stop bugging him about joining and that he and the swordsman were special.

His head surfaced above the water, taking Luffy's own above as well, making sure he received enough air as well. As he swam towards the fin of the Baratie with everyone on it, he ran his fingers through Luffy's hair, making sure to comb it well enough to flatten his ears, and because of the water, it was definitely much easier to do so. As he combed through it though, he almost didn't want to stop, mesmerized by how soft it was.

"Great. Now I'm addicted to touching his head." He said to himself, grumbling softer the closer he went to the platform. He could hear the pirates screaming about how such a thing was possible, but right now, he didn't really care. His main objective was to find out what to do with the identity of a near-extinct human hybrid thingy.

He pulled Luffy onto the fin and sat him down on top of his lap, practically cradling him in his arms, but still leaving him in a position suitable for breathing and perhaps CPR if needed. His arms were still snaked around Luffy's armpits, so that it was more convincing that he wasn't doing that on purpose (since that was the same way he had pulled Luffy out of the water) and his hands covered his head, his thumb curling into his locks.

"Hey, Luffy! You can't die, you hear! You've got things to do, don't you?" he grabbed his suit that was a few feet away from him and placed it on Luffy's head, pulling himself out from underneath and instead going on top of him, placing his hands on Luffy's shoulders and shaking him back and forth, "Say something…" his voice weakened as he ended, but he continued to shake. His voice cracked, "Say something already! Luffy, don't die!" he shook once more and a short whimper sounded from the neko.

"Hm…" Sanji stilled and there was silence again. The blonde waited for a second and stared on at the boy when he started to snore, albeit softly. He was shocked to say the least, and as a response to Luffy's snoring, he released his grip on the neko's shoulders and bonked the teen mildly on his head, not knowing where to be relieved or annoyed. It was a mixture of both really, since he had no aggravated feelings. He scowled at the boy, an annoyed frown on his face, but it changed immediately to a smile, "You're such a pain in the butt."

His smiled disappeared into a confused frown when in the center of the pirate group—who were now currently on the fin of the Baratie—Don Krieg stood up and screamed out in the sky, "AREN'T I THE STRONGEST?! NO ONE DARES TO GO AGAINST ME!" the pirates attempted to stop their captain, but it was clear that Don Krieg was unresponsive to their words, and by the way he seemed to be deaf of those words, it really seemed like he was still unconscious, "I'VE WON EVERY SINGLE BATTLE I'VE BEEN IN! IT'S UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE SOMEONE THAT CAN MATCH MY STRENGTH!"

Sanji gaped at the scene, "Don Krieg?!"

"I WIN… AND W…ILL CONTI… NUE… TO WIN!" blood spat out of his mouth, and once again the pirates from his crew attempted to calm him down, one of them stating that he had lost consciousness, "I AM THE STRONGEST!"

Immediately after he had said that, Gin walked up to his captain and pulled his fist back before plummeting his fist into Don Krieg's stomach, causing the older man to spit out blood. The pirate captain fell onto Gin's shoulder, the smaller and lankier pirate catching him with ease as if he didn't weigh much. "Don Krieg… we have lost. Let's retreat and start all over again." Without turning around, he spoke to Sanji, "Thanks for everything Sanji-san."

Sanji hummed, "Come 'ere again, won't 'ye."

Gin smiled and turned around to face the blonde, but eyeing the neko by him, "Sanji-san, give this message to him when he wakes up. 'Let's meet again out on the Grand Line.'"

Sanji perked up after hearing this, "You're still gonna be a pirate...?"

Gin immediately replied, "I've given much thought into it. It's the only thing I want to do. I guess before I realized it, Don Krieg's ambition became mine as well…" his words softened as he ended, and after finishing, buckets of blood fountained from his mouth, his eyes going blank for a second. The pirates shouted his name and Sanji followed, gin taking in large amounts of air to breathe, "I might only have a few more hours to live, so it might be a bit cowardly for me to make this decision only at the end of my life, but it's still good for me nonetheless. I've decided that this time, I'll do things of my own will; in my own way. If I do that, I won't have a place to run away to, right?"

Sanji stared at the pirate, wondering where he was going with this.

"Ha. Loyalty to the Don, my ass! All I've been doing is using the Don's name as a 'shield' to escape and hide behind. As long as you're prepared, things like being scared of your enemies or getting hurt are nothing but useless worrying. That guy over there taught me it's better not to worry about any of that stuff."

Sanji stared at Gin for a good ten, empty seconds before calling out to Patty and Carne, "Give them the boat we use to go out and buy ingredients."

"What!? Are you retarded?!" Patty insulted the blonde.

"Why the hell do we have to give a boat to the very pirates that attacked us!? Those scum can swim away for all we care!" Carne continued.

"How're we gonna buy food supplies if we give them our boat, you numbskull!?"

Sanji clicked his tongue in an aggravated way and turned his head to look at the two chefs, annoyance clear in his eyes, "Shut up and give them the damn boat already!"

"Älright…"

"You don't have to yell…"

As the two walked away, Sanji could still hear them arguing as they ran, mentioning that they had no chance against him. What Sanji wasn't expecting though was Zeff to walk up to him, staring at him with eyes that he couldn't read. "What's wrong geezer?"

Zeff sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at Sanji with a frown that didn't necessarily mean that he was angry, more like confused or unknowing, or at least that's what Sanji thought, "Why's your suit on his head?" he asked, looking at Sanji.

The blonde pursed his lips and for a mere second, he almost looked away before quickly replying, "His head's wet." He mentally kicked himself. That was the most idiotic reply he could have given in that situation, and he knew exactly how Zeff was going to reply.

"His whole body is wet." He knew it.

"Yeah! Well, it's complica—" He was stopped when Zeff interrupted him.

"I already know."

Sanji stared at him with wide eyes. "What…?" he shook his head, "You already knew?"

"I'm guessing that you got a clear view of what he was hiding?" Zeff asked, smirking.

"You mean the ears?" Sanji said, looking around to check if anyone was listening.

"Ho, so you didn't see the tail, I'm guessing?" Zeff chuckled, attempting to cross his arms with the crutch.

"Should've known that was a tail…" Sanji said, remembering the times when he caught a glimpse of the furry, black appendage hidden. Sanji looked up at Zeff, a serious look on his face, "I'm guessing that I can't tell anyone?"

Zeff nodded, "It'd be best. You don't know what the kid wants, and judging from the fact that he's been hiding his identity for so long, he most likely doesn't want it exposed to someone he doesn't want to know."

Sanji chuckled, "Can't blame him. I wouldn't want those bastards knowing if I were one." It sounded weird. That word, "A neko…" it didn't roll off his tongue, it almost sounded taboo to him, but he tried to think of it that if the word _were_ in fact taboo, then that would mean that Luffy was taboo, too, and he didn't want to think of the kid like that.

Zeff laughed for a moment, before sighing and turning around towards the restaurant, "Put the kid in the bedroom. He needs the rest."

Sanji watched as the head chef walked into the restaurant, the other pirates had gone into the boat and the chefs had checked up on Luffy before following Zeff's footprints, no one really having a general clue on what to do. A few of them spoke of celebrations, but they weren't really a group to party. They never really had time-offs and Sanji was sure that the next day, the customers that hadn't yet heard of the attack would go.

The blonde looked at the neko, his eyes stuck on the suit on Luffy's head.

He was speechless, not knowing what else to do other than to take him to the bedroom.

●ω●

Sanji placed his hand on Luffy's head, leaving it there for a few hesitant seconds before commencing to pet the hair. He smiled a bit, enjoying the feeling of the soft hair between his fingers. His eyes closed little by little, before closing completely. He wasn't tired, but it seemed so much more amazing to touch when his eyes were closed. He leaned forward a bit, not too much, and savored the feeling of the almost feathery hair.

He halted though when he heard a soft purring, and when Luffy's head leaned into his hand, he was stilled completely. He quickly pulled his hand away and couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. "Y-You're awake…?" Sanji asked, cursing his voice for stuttering.

Luffy stopped his purring for a second before continuing again, although he wasn't being pet anymore. The neko yawned—so alike to a cat, Sanji thought—before Luffy nodded, "Yeah… I think…" Sanji frowned, hating the fact that he was finding the boy _cute_. He was into _girls_ , so he didn't think guys were _cute_ or _hot_ , no, those words were only for women!

Luffy looked around, taking in his surroundings. He looked at the counter next to him and saw his hat sitting on it. At first, he didn't think much of it, until he realized that there could be other people in the room. "Crap!" he turned to Sanji and practically leaped on him, "Did anyone else see?" he asked, his tail escaping from under the covers. Sanji had taken the tail out, wondering how the whole appendage looked like, and he wasn't disappointed by the feeling, and he found it fascinating to watch as the tail swayed side to side at a quick speed.

"Only Zeff knows. No one else knows. I'm sure." He was sure. He had been keeping an eye on Luffy ever since he took him to the bedroom.

Luffy sighed in relief and sat down on the bed, his tail swaying from side to side at a much calmer pace. "Oh, ok!" he said with a wide smile. Sanji observed the tail, taking note that the tail reacted to how he was currently feeling.

Luffy patted the bandages he wore and stuck his tongue out at them, then commenced to peel each one off, throwing them into the trashcan near the bed.

"Sorry, but we've run out of more bandages." Sanji told Luffy, who was peeling the last of the dirtied bandages.

"Don't need it." Luffy quickly replied.

"I see."

Once the last of the bandages had been removed, with the help of Sanji in the places that were uncomfortable to reach, Luffy asked Sanji, "What happened to those guys?"

"They've left. Thanks to you." He pulled out a cigarette from inside his suit and was about to light it before facing Luffy, "Can I?"

Luffy nodded, "Sure. They smell bad but they don't really make me grossed out."

Sanji stood up and placed the lit cigarette into his mouth. After remembering the last moments of the pirate's voyage, he smiled, not forgetting to tell Luffy Gin's words. "'Let's meet again out on the Grand Line' is what Gin said before leaving."

Luffy smiled wide as he faced Sanji, looking at him with admiring eyes, "Cool, he said that to you?"

Sanji immediately reacted negatively, so much so that the cigarette in his mouth fell from his mouth, "To you, dumbass!"

Luffy and Sanji sat there in silence, Luffy _almost_ enjoying it, but almost wasn't enough. "Anyway," he practically sang the word, lengthening it, "You wanna…" he scooted closer to the blonde chef who sat back down on the chair, a grin on his face.

"I ain't gonna be a pirate." Sanji placed his hand on Luffy's head, combing the hair with his fingers, "I'm gonna stay here and be a cook until the day that damn geezer acknowledges my cooking."

Luffy frowned a cute pout, Sanji almost regretting his negation. "Fine, I'll give up then." Luffy said, bowing his head so that his ears were in visible view. His hand, although he himself had said he had given up, hadn't. His hand tugged on Sanji's collar, pulling him with strength that if it weren't for Sanji's powerful legs, the blonde would've been pulled towards the neko onto the bed.

"But your hand hasn't given up!" Sanji said, grabbing his collar to loosen the grip and allow air to pass through.

Sanji, after Luffy had let go of him, walked outside of the room and rested on the railing of that floor, his arms crossed on top of it. Luffy followed, his tail perked high and missing the feeling of a hand on his head. Once next to the smoker, he ducked his body and placed his head underneath Sanji's hand, simply leaving it there.

"What are you doing?" Sanji asked, curious. He didn't dislike the feeling, so he left his hand placed on Luffy's head and even started to pet him.

Luffy purred for a moment, smiling, "Being pet feels _really_ nice." The neko eyed Sanji's own hair and smiled even wider, "Look, I'll show you!" Luffy slipped from underneath Sanji's hand and reached to touch the other's hair, although he was about to reject, Sanji's hair had been invaded by a touch that couldn't be defined as 'calming'.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. Just leave the petting to me. Anyway, I'm guessing you want to know why I can't go?" Sanji asked, grabbing Luffy's hand and fixing his own hair, but once again reaching out to pet the other boy's hair when he continued to stare at him. Luffy nodded to his proposal, interested to know why Sanji didn't want to join, "After something like that happening, I can't afford to leave even more. The cooks here are completely undependable. But I want to go out to the Grand Line one of these days."

Luffy perked up, his ears brushing against Sanji's thumb and pinky, "Then let's go right now!"

"Not just yet, though." Sanji quickly said so that he wouldn't bring up the teenager's hopes up.

They stood there in silence, the tip of Luffy's tail swaying in the slightest of movements. After a few minutes, Sanji perked up, surprising Luffy a bit, and a wide smile made way to Sanji's face, his expression completely changed and his odor so sweet, so much like candy, "Hey, do you know about the All Blue?" he asked.

Luffy cocked his head, "No." he said.

Sanji looked at Luffy, surprised, but not disappointed, in fact, almost appreciative, "What? You've never heard of the Ocean of Miracles? Well, you see, in All Blue you can find all the species of every fish in all four seas!"

Luffy perked his ears and smiled, "Oh! Yeah, I remember! In my hometown, there were so many stories about an ocean with all the fish in the world! Is it real?"

Sanji and Luffy continued the conversation, mainly because the neko was savoring Sanji's smell, the sweet smell coming from him was amazing and Luffy was glad to be fueling it. Unbeknownst to Sanji though, Zeff watched the pair from the third floor, watching them from behind the rails of his floor. Luffy knew full well he was being watched, but because it was Zeff, he didn't really mind, now that the chef already knew that he was a neko.

And of course, he didn't miss what the head chef said, "Talking with such a stupidly wide grin on your face. Idiot."

and Luffy knew that the chef was definitely grinning.

●ω●

"Time for grub, you bastards!"

Patty called all the chefs to the employee dining room on the second floor. Luffy guessed that this was their way of celebrating, since he smelled nothing too cheerful like someone preparing to have a party.

"Hey, who's in charge of cooking today?" one of the pirates asked.

Patty and Carne stood confident poses, proudly stating that they were the ones who had cooking duty, but the chef who had asked simply said that it was nothing to look forward then since it was going to be made by them.

Sanji opened the door and allowed Luffy to walk in—because he was a gentleman—and after looking around, the blonde realized that no one had left a seat for the neko or Sanji. "Hey… where's our seats?" he asked no one specifically, simply wanting an answer, the same for Luffy who asked where the food was, but none of the chefs answered in the first few seconds.

"There ain't no chairs for you."

Another chuckled, food clearly in his mouth, "Just eat on the floor!"

Sanji scoffed, wanting to laugh, but he ended up frowning, "No chairs? This is a restaurant, how is that freakin' possible?" he asked rhetorically.

Luffy was currently wearing his hoodie on top of his straw hat which laid on top of his head. The red hoodie completely concealed his ears with perfect precision, that it amazed Sanji that he had thought of wearing it.

As the two grabbed their meals, they sat on the floor and commenced to eat, Luffy couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Everyone had smells that wasn't normal for someone who was _eating_ , especially since the smell was _very_ similar to someone who was lying, but they weren't really saying anything, so he simply told Sanji that they were acting weird, but it didn't bother Sanji one bit, "They're always strange."

Sanji frowned at Sanji, but the smell grew immensely in a single second, and so when Luffy looked over, Patty had raised a plate of soup, "Hey, who was the one in charge of making this morning's soup?"

Sanji looked at the plate and smiled, raising his hand proudly as waves of sun shined behind him. Luffy smiled again, liking it when he smelled that odor of happiness, "Oh, that'd be me! Pretty good, right? I made it especially go—" Sanji halted completely when Patty gripped the plate and threw it on the floor.

"How the hell am I supposed to pass this crap down my stomach?!" he yelled, the pristine, golden soup glistering on the floor, remnants of the glass laying around the puddle, "What is this, pig feed?!" he continued to insult.

Luffy gulped sadly when the smell of happiness completely vanished, as if it had never existed. Sanji had a look of pure anger, his body shaking in anger. Luffy grabbed a fork and started to eat the meat he had on his plate, suckling on it to get the sauces, but it tasted like dust because of Sanji's rage-filled smell. So much like _ash_.

"Hey." He said as he stood up, his body slumped as if he were ready to attack, "Does proper human food not suit you, you damn raccoon?"

Patty gave him a thumbs down. "Ha! This is pure crap of the highest quality, makes me wanna puke! Did you put actual shit in this or what?" Luffy frowned. It was pretty convincing, but Patty was lying. His composure was perfect, not shaking nor stuttering, but the way his heart was beating was a clear giveaway, but even then, he didn't know if it was his place to tell Sanji that he was lying.

Sanji glared at Patty, his expression clearly showing that he was ready to murder him if he said any more, "I'm perfectly confident in my soup. Maybe it's your damn tongue that's—" once again, he wasn't able to complete his sentence because this time, Carne interrupted.

He spit out what was clearly Sanji's soup and yelled a clear 'yuck.' The rest of the chefs followed, many going as far as dropping their plates on the floor while the rest poured the soup on the floor, "No way we can eat this filth! Just throw it out!"

"Eww, terrible! Just terrible!"

The insults kept on coming like a train that never ended, crashing and crashing on a wall that was breaking.

Sanji sucked in a deep breath and with the eyes of someone ready to kill, he yelled out, "THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

The chefs looked at him and all seemed to scoff at once, "You being the assistant head chef was always a sham! It's only because you've been here the longest!"

"I'm sick of your violent ways."

"If something tastes bad, then it's my right to say it's bad."

Sanji grit his teeth, and Luffy stood there completely flustered and confused. "What did you…"

Luffy looked behind him, watching as the geezer took a sip from a plate containing some of the soup that the chefs insulted, "Owner!" the chefs chorused.

Sanji turned around, glaring at the other blonde like a feral tiger, "Geezer…!" his voice was practically a growl too, and it caused Luffy to shiver.

"What's with this disgusting soup? Is it supposed to taste like sludge or what?! We'd go out of business if we served this to customers!"

Sanji stomped to where Zeff stood and grabbed him by the shirt with both his hands, "DON'T JOKE WITH ME, YOU DAMN GEEZER! HOW'S THIS ANY DIFFERENT FROM THE SOUP YOU MAKE?! WELL?! SPEAK UP!"

"The soup I make…?" Zeff growled, baring all his teeth. The head chef pulled back his fist and with monstrous strength, he punched Sanji on the jaw, bringing the blonde to the ground with blood splattered on the floor and in Sanji's mouth. "Don't get cocky!"

"The owner… punched him?!" all the chefs were equally surprised.

Zeff held his fist high, still baring his teeth, "It's a hundred years too early for a lil' eggplant like you to be comparing my soup with yours! I've cooked all around the world!"

"He didn't kick… but punched him instead…!"

Sanji held his palm over his jaw, glaring at Zeff who glared back at him with deadlier eyes. Sanji exhaled powerfully before charging towards the door and slamming it behind him, leaving the whole dining room in complete silence, screaming 'Damn it' as he left—if it weren't for Luffy's slurping.

Luffy tasted the soup for himself, mainly because he knew they were lying and he really wanted to experience the meal, and he wasn't disappointed, "This soup's pretty good if you ask me." He wanted to glare at the chefs, and he was going to hurt them if it turned out it was a prank. Sanji was clearly in an amazing mood before they seemed to just _lie_ about it being gross.

The chefs all seemed to sigh at the same time, many finding a seat and sitting down, looking around as if they had nothing better to do, but all of them wore faces of guilt, "Yeah. We know."

Another let out a bigger sigh, "Whew, that was scary. He sure was stomping mad."

A chef rested his cheek on his hand, facing Luffy, "Everyone here knows how good Sanji's cooking is."

Luffy heard familiar footsteps of Zeff, pulling a chair to sit on it, "But if we didn't do that, that idiot would never listen to us!" Zeff looked at Luffy, who stared curiously back at him, "Hey kid… Would you mind taking that lil' eggplant with you? Take him to the Grand Line. It's his dream."

The chefs in the room began to chuckle, easily turning into fits of laughter that didn't necessarily mean they were having the time of their lives. After telling Zeff that that was too much trouble to go through simply because of something like getting Sanji out of the building, others changed the subject back to his soup, yelling at someone else to get them another plate of the delicacy.

Luffy turned to the door, not getting up but reaching over to help himself some more, but couldn't help but stare at the door, knowing full well the person listening. He turned back to face Zeff, raising his voice higher so that the blonde behind the door could hear, "Take Sanji along? Don't wanna." he said, causing the chefs to yell out in surprise, yelling 'what'.

Zeff kept a calmer demeanor, but it was clear that he was surprised and agitated, "What's the meaning of this? Didn't you want a cook for your ship? What, are you not _satisfied_ with him?" a bead of sweat ran down his temple.

Luffy immediately responded, definitely thinking that Sanji was plenty satisfactory for him, "No, it's not like I'm dissatisfied or anything. I do want him to come along with me, but he said he wants to stay here and be a cook. So even if you tell me to take him with me, I'm not gonna." at least they didn't do that as some mean prank. He would've gotten real mad if that were the case.

"So you won't accept unless he says it himself." Zeff concluded, frowning.

"Yep." he extended his arm towards the chef, "More soup."

"Well, you do have a point," he said, ignoring Luffy's request, "But the problem is whether that rebellious brat will be honest with himself or not…"

A chef scoffed jokingly, "It's impossible! He's too hard-headed for his own good!"

●ω●

Sanji blew smoke out from his mouth, watching from his seat the waves the softly crashed onto the boat and overlapped against each other. He thought about what he had heard, unsure and processing the information he gained. It wasn't information one could use as an advantage, more like the info one needs to complete an opinion or request. He pondered, wondering what choice he should do.

That is, before a shark fin came into sight from the waters, a loud gurgling sound coming from what the blonde assumed to be a shark. At first, he paid no mind to it, but the fin continued to swim faster and faster towards him and ended up jumping high to his level, "Wha—" he stood up, ready to either defend himself or dodge the assault. But, he had gotten up far too late, now that the shark, along with something _green_ in its mouth, crashed into him and breaking the door the smoker was laid against. The door collapsed behind them, leading the shark, whatever that was inside the shark and Sanji to go inside the room where the blonde had been inside before, and had purposely left.

Once they had landed, Sanji looked up to see what was on top of him, and was surprised to see a man inside the mouth of a Panda shark, although a few slow chefs thought that the man was a merman.

Luffy, happy to see Sanji again without the burning charcoal smell, was shocked to see that the man everyone circled around inside the shark was actually Yosaku, so he called out to his name, "Ah…" he replied weakly, "Brother Luffy...!"

The neko walked in front of him and crouched low enough to have direct eye contact, "What're you doing here alone? Where are the others? And what about Nami?"

Seeing as Yosaku couldn't seem to talk too well, they gave him a blanket to cool down and fixed up the bite marks he had, which were more like bruises than cuts since the Panda shark's teeth weren't very sharp in any way. Once he felt better though, he replied to Luffy's questions, "We couldn't catch up with sister Nami but judging from the way she was headed, we're pretty sure we know where she's headed."

Luffy smiled, "Oh good. Then let's go and bring her back."

Yosaku frowned and averted his eyes for a moment, "Well, umm… if she's headed to where we think she's headed to, then it's an incredibly dangerous place…! Well, I'll fill you in on the details later! In any case, we need your strength, bro! Please come right away!"

Luffy nodded firmly, seeing as how Yosaku's scent of pure worry was definitely not false. "Okay, I don't know what's going on, but fine! Let's go!" as he started to get up from his seat, he heard Sanji's voice.

"Wait."

Luffy turned around to see Sanji resting against one of the walls of the room, his arms crossed and looking at the ground, smoke puffing out from his mouth. "I'll go too. Take me with you." the chefs and Luffy were shocked, seeing how the chef was completely stubborn about the idea of him leaving the restaurant, "I'll accompany you on your way to become Pirate King. After all, we both have crazy dreams… so I'll tag along to fulfill mine." he said, now facing Luffy. "I'll be the cook of your ship. Sound good? Or bad?"

Luffy smiled widely, throwing his hands in the air and celebrating, "Sounds great! Woohoo!" Yosaku celebrated as well with the neko, grabbing each other's arms and doing a circular dance that mostly involved kneeing to the sides.

Sanji smiled softly, looking at the rest of the chefs as the pair danced outside the room through the broken door. "That's how it's gonna be, guys. Sorry for all the trouble I put you through."

Patty walked up to the blonde, crossing his arms and looking down at him with a scowl, "I don't like it one bit! I wanted to throw you outta here with my own two hands, but now you decide to leave on your own?"

Sanji frowned a bit, "Sorry for making you put on that shitty performance."

All the chefs looked equally surprised, "What!? You knew!?"

Sanji scoffed and glared at the chefs, "I could hear you crystal clear from outside, you numbskulls." sanji turned to Zeff, who was walking towards them, "So, you wanted to kick me out that badly, huh? Is that right, you damn geezer?"

Zeff sighed, glaring at the other blonde, "That's exactly right, lil' eggplant. I've always hated brats. There hasn't been a single day when I didn't regret saving a brat like you."

Sanji bit down on his cigarette, ready to snap it in half, "Ha… whatever you say, geezer. Enjoy the few years you have left.

●ω●

"Woah, nice boat. Can we really use this?" Yosaku asked the chef giving it to them.

"Of course. It's Sanji's after all."

●ω●

Luffy held a sack of food in his arms, large enough for three people on the amount of days they were taking, but it wasn't going to last with the neko onboard. "You wanna take more?!"

"Yep. Gimme more meat."

"How many days are you gonna be sailin' for?" the chef asked skeptical.

"Dunno."

●ω●

Sanji closed the tap of the sink, only a few drops of water escaping. He walked to his room, putting everything he needed into a small sack and slung the bag over his shoulder, holding it with two fingers. As he walked away from his room, he walked to the main dining room for the customers and pulled a chair, placing the bag on the table as he rested on the chair, staring into nothing as the smoke from his cigarette weaved in the air.

" _Hey old geezer, this is amazing! So this is the restaurant of the seas!"_

" _That's right. Even all that treasure still wasn't enough to pay for this ship, so we'll be working overtime for awhile."_

" _It's fine, since I'll be here to help!"_

" _Stop calling me a lil' eggplant, you damn geezer!"_

" _Did I hurt your feelings lil' eggplant?"_

" _Cough! Cough!"_

" _Stop smoking. Tobacco will dull your tongue."_

" _Heh heh… I'm all grown up now, right?"_

Sanji sighed, picked up his bag and sat up from the chair, pulling it back to its original place.

●ω●

"Brother cook is sure running late." Yosaku said, standing on the boat with Luffy on board next to him, watching the cooks surround the broken fin of the restaurant. Once he had said that, Sanji appeared in the doorway, simply standing there as if taking everything in—as if he had never once seen the ocean. "Ah, he's here."

Sanji commenced walking once again, only so that Patty and Carne appeared behind him with their large silverware ready to attack him, but were easily defeated. After defeating them, the blonde continued to walk towards the boat the neko and bounty hunter were on, the rest of the chefs watching him like hungry eagles.

Once in front of Luffy, but not on the ship, he spread his arms wide and said, "Let's go."

Luffy crossed his arms and stared at him, "Just like that? What about saying goodbyes?"

Sanji shook his head barely, "It's fine."

As he was about to get on board, Zeff called out, "Hey, Sanji." Sanji didn't turn around nor acknowledge that he had heard, but he stopped from going further into the boat, "Don't catch a cold."

Luffy looked at Sanji, smiling when he saw tears form in the blonde's eyes. He could see Zeff smile too, and the emotions of sadness but happiness flooded his nose.

Sanji turned around and said with a cracking voice and tears drenching his face, "OWNER ZEFF!" he turned around and slammed his head into the floor, bowing to the head chef who watched him from the last floor of the Baratie, "I'M ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR TAKING CARE OF ME FOR SO DAMN LONG! I SHALL NEVER FORGET FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE THE DEBT I OWE YOU!"

Luffy smiled as the following events unfolded like a theatre, having Zeff cry as well, albeit not as noticeable, and the rest of the chefs screaming words of 'we'll miss you' and so on, but it surprised Sanji that even Patty and Carne cried, in fact, they seemed like the ones who cared the most because of their volume.

Sanji smiled, more tears running down his cheeks and chin as Zeff hid his tears with his hand, "Damn idiots… Men should say their goodbyes silently…" he commented, unable to help himself.

Sanji swallowed some of the saliva that had built up in his mouth, ready to continue again, "LET'S MEET AGAIN ONE DAY! YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING BASTARDS!" he said, wiping away his tears as best as he could, he hopped on board the small boat and sat on the hem of the ship, wiping away more tears as they finally set off.

"Alright! Let's set sail!" Luffy cheered.

 **Am I finished now...? I think I am...**

 **Wait! I am!**

 **(One) Piece out!**


	8. Chapter 8: Glass Lies

Chapter 8: Glass Lies

 **I ain't gonna even bother with an Author's Note. I kept you guys waiting long enough!**

 **Enjoy!**

Luffy's ears twitched for the umpteenth time they had set out into the ocean, his lips pulling slowly into a small frown. His eyebrows drooped down in the same manner, and his tail flicked to the side like a whip. After another sob, he gritted his teeth and turned to the man across from him on the boat wearing a green jacket, "Hey, how long are you gonna cry for?" he didn't want to sound too harsh, so he quickly added, "Cheer up already."

Yosaku bit his white shirt, chomping onto it and rubbing his teeth on the fabric as he wiped waterfalls of tears with the palm of his hand, sniffing every time he needed to breathe, "B-But… I'm so touched! It was truly a beautiful 'Goodbye', brother cook!" he said, the tears started to run down his palm.

Sanji clicked his tongue, and quickly snapped back, changing the subject, "You _are_ keeping a check on our boat's direction, right?"

Luffy smiled and threw his fists in the air, the salty breeze beginning to pick up, holding up a few passing seagulls like stage equipment being held up by wire. He let out a loud, satisfactory sigh as his tail flicked around happily. Sanji, being still new to the ears—although hidden by his hat—and tail, couldn't help but stare at the black appendage. "I wanna bring back Nami so we can go to the Grand Line already!"

Sanji pulled out a smoke and lit it, pressing it into his mouth, breaking his gaze from the tail and staring at Luffy in the eye, "You're awfully happy. But even with Nami, don't you still only have five people?" the blonde blew out smoke, eyeing the appendage again as it started to twitch, "Are you seriously planning to go to Grand Line with only five people?" He kicked his legs, "You'll regret it if you underestimate the seas, you hear?"

Luffy positioned himself more comfortably on the head of the boat, his tail dipping into the water and swishing around, enjoying the slight nip he would get from curious fish, "If it's more crewmembers I need, I can do that in the Grand Line, too! After all, it's supposed to be a paradise!"

Sanji raised his eyebrows, "Paradise? Don't you mean a pirate's graveyard?"

Luffy smiled sincerely, small giggles escaping from his closed grit of his teeth, "Before I left the restaurant, owner Zeff told me that some people call the Grand Line _Paradise!_ "

Sanji laid his cheek on the palm of his hand, "That geezer said that…?" a perverted look grew upon his face, the smoke from his cigarette forming shapes coincidentally similar to hearts, "Well, as long as Nami will be there, I won't mind even if it's the two of us alone…"

As he finished that thought out loud, Yosaku pounced upwards and pointed accusingly at Luffy, a serious and annoyed look present on his face, "You're all being much too naïve! You really know too little about the Grand Line! Not to mention our destination as well! If brother Zoro had some basic knowledge, then he'd have come back along with me!" he lowered his hand and slapped it on his knee, "And he definitely would've realized just how terrifying that man at the place sister Nami went to is!"

Sanji piped up with a large smile, standing up from his seat on the rim of the boat, "So, should we eat?" he asked, followed by Luffy's cheer of—a very loud—approval and Yosaku's cry of dismay.

He lifted up a finger, gaining the attention of the other two males and making Sanji interested enough to sit back down on the floor, "There's something about the place we're going to that you _have_ to know about!" he outstretched three of his fingers in front of them, and continued, "The reason why the Grand Line is called the 'pirate's graveyard' is because of the three great powers that rule over it. And one of them…" his face was shadowed by a clear agitation, "is the Ouka Shichibukai."

"Shichibukai?" Luffy asked, mildly interested in the subject.

"Simply put, they're seven pirates that are officially authorized by the World Government." Yosaku explained briefly, his face serious.

"What? Why would the Government permit pirates?" Sanji asked.

Yosaku continued, "As long as the Shichibukai give a portion of their loot, obtained from pillaging and uncivilized lands to the World Government, their pirating activities are officially sanctioned. Other parties might look down on them by calling them 'Government dogs' or whatnot, but they're extremely strong!" He gritted his teeth and clutched his hands into tight balls, "In fact, the Hawk-Eyed Mihawk who defeated brother Zoro… is one of the Ouka Shichibukai!"

Luffy clapped the bottom of his sandals repeatedly, an excited yet flustered look painted on his face, "Whoa! There's seven of these guys?! Those Shichibukai guys are amazing!" Sanji seemed mildly surprised, not too interested in these specific seven people, but it didn't necessarily mean he was completely uninterested.

"The problem is with another of the Shichibukai, though." Yosaku added, wearing a look of dismay, "The leader of the Fishman Pirates, Jinbei!"

The neko crossed his arms and cocked his head, he swore he had heard the word 'fishman' before, "Fishman? Never met one before." He said, sincerely wondering what they were, and reeling his mind to find a possible answer, but Sanji seemed to know a bit more than him. Either way, he pulled out a sketchbook and pencil and put his mind and hand to work.

"Fishman, huh? Isn't Fishman Island a very famous travel destination in the Grand Line? I've heard that the most beautiful mermaids are there." He said, cupping his chin with a noticeable perverted smile gracing his smoky lips.

Yosaku paid no heed to what thoughts resided in Sanji's mind and continued, "In return for joining the Shichibukai, Jinbei let a terrifying monster loose in East Blue."

Luffy flipped the sketchbook he was drawing on to Sanji and Yosaku, showing a crude drawing of what seemed to be a fish with four legs. "Like this?" he asked with a surprisingly serious expression, as if his drawing was what he actually thought a fishman looked like.

Sanji laughed amusingly at the drawing, pointing at it and commenting, "That's one ugly fish!"

Yosaku, on the other hand, snapped at them again, "IS IT PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO PAY ATTENTION?!" he calmed down for a second, and looked down at the floorboards of the boat, and with a tired tone, he said, "Whatever, I'll skip the complicated history lecture for now." He looked at them, mildly surprised to see that the two were looking at him, so he decided that now it would be best to tell them what he previously wanted to tell the, despite having said that he wasn't, "The place we're heading to is 'Arlong Park'. It's an area ruled by Arlong, a fishman pirate that once fought alongside Jinbei, a member of the Shichibukai." His face darkened as he continued, "In terms of individual strength, he's stronger than even Don Krieg!"

Sanji pulled out his cigarette and blew out the smoke, placing it back between his teeth and commented on a gap in the story he didn't understand, "But… you came back to Baratie before catching up with her, right? So how do you know for sure where Nami was headed to? Isn't it possible that her destination happened to be in that same direction?"

Yosaku rested his head on his hand, chewing the inside of his lip, "Me and Johnny have a strong feeling about this… based on what happened earlier. Sister Nami was definitely staring intently at Arlong's wanted poster, and right after we said Arlong's crew was wreaking havoc again recently, she took off with the treasure. This is too much to be a coincidence. I'm sure there's some conne—" he halted his theory when he noticed that Luffy had been sketching again, and noticed that Sanji's attention had driven back to the neko.

"How about this?" Luffy asked the blonde, the tip of his tail waving back and forth as he wore a wide smile.

Sanji slightly frowned at the image. While the drawing seemed to improve in terms of lucidness, the changes done to it in comparison to the drawing before were minimal, and Sanji noticed, pointing it out, "All you did was draw your previous fish standing upright." He smiled though and clasped his hands together, looking up at the sky in thought, "But I wonder just what Nami has to do with those fishmen? Could it be that she's a mermaid? That would explain her beauty…"

Luffy flipped his sketchbook once more, showing the previous drawing but added to it was Nami's hair, albeit much spikier and messy. Even Luffy seemed to be terrorized by his own drawing, probably imagining Nami in that way scared him, but after showing it to Sanji, he only received a death threat from the blonde.

Yosaku, tired of being ignored, cried out to them, asking them if they even understood what he had said, and despite their previous lack of attention, they seemed to have gotten the main gist of it. "Yeah, there's a strong fishman dude, got it."

"No, you don't! you can't imagine just how powerful he is!"

"Well, I'll see when we get there." The blonde replied.

"Yeah, that's right. Don't sweat it, Yosaku."

"GOD, TALKING TO YOU TWO IS JUST USELESS!"

Sanji stood up, smoking his cigarette and facing the two as they got up as well. "In any case, let's eat. What do you want?" he asked in a calm, bored tone, but he flashed a smile at them either way.

"Meat on a bone!"

"Stir-fried bean sprouts!"

"Alright. Just leave it to me."

●ω●

Zoro stared at the large building he, Usopp and Johnny were currently sailing towards, the two stuttering out words that really defined their fear well.

"We'd finally arrived, but…" Johnny said, not finishing his thoughts.

"The real problem is from here. First, let's try to find where Nami docked the ship." Usopp ended.

Zoro held onto Wado and unsheathed the katana a bit, glaring at the building. "And then cut our way in?" he asked, sincerely thinking that the other two had planned it from the very beginning, but instead, he received yells and screams of frustration and terror, a scolding afterwards.

●ω●

"There it is! I found Going Merry! She docked it over there!" Usopp said, looking away from the caravel through his binoculars and looking towards the other two.

Zoro writhed in the tight binds holding him on the door of their small boat, his ankles and wrists tied as well, hindering his movements almost completely. The only actual 'limbs' he could move freely was his head, ears and tail, but halfway through in their trip, he had considered whether or not to expose his tail and ears, and decided that it was safer to keep them hidden, so even his cat features were restrained by his own will, "Hey! What's the meaning of this! Untie me now!"

Johnny continued to talk with Usopp concerning their location and the docking spot of the caravel, and realizing that the two were ignoring the tiger, Zoro seethed further, "I said untie me!" he yelled louder, his vocal chords threatening to vibrate from growling. The neko swore he was going to claw at them once he got out from his restraints.

Usopp smiled at him, looking genuinely happy— _'The jerk. Who knows what sick humor he found myself tied like this'_ Zoro thought to himself when he saw the sniper walk towards him, crouching in front of him and roughly patting his chest where bandages covered him like a shirt. Any other time, it wouldn't have been so displeasing, as pats sometimes felt good when done correctly, but Usopp straight out forced the tiger to feel that pain from before again. "That's enough. Look at yourself, you're about to faint just from yelling! You were an inch away from death, remember?" Zoro internally growled, gritting his teeth together to suppress a wheeze. _'Great, now Usopp was using his yelling as a substitute as to why he was currently in pain.'_ Zoro was really starting to dislike the smile the sniper wore.

Tied by ropes with minimum movement and being tortured really reminded him when he was tied to the post back at the Marine Base because that snobby kid, and that didn't really serve to calm him down. If anything, it made him suffer more.

"Just leave it to me!" Usopp yelled, grinning with his arms crossed, "I'll bring that girl back!"

Johnny frowned, seeing a sudden change in Usopp's demeanor, "Aren't you suddenly cheerful now that you know we're not going to Arlong Park…"

Although it was meant to be somewhat rhetorical, Johnny found it a bit annoying to be flat out ignored. "Starboard to Going Merry! Bring me up right next to her!" even Zoro sighed, finding it a bit annoying how Usopp had started to act like captain, but he let it slide since he was ordering someone who wasn't an actual member of the crew. But, now that he thought about it, Nami wasn't an official member either, but she always commanded them, but that was for navigation which nobody knew how to do very well, so he let that slide as well.

"Aye, aye." Johnny replied to Usopp's command.

"Alright! The adventure about to unfold as I bravely step foot on these virgin lands will hereby be known as 'The Warrior Usopp's Great Adventure!' fitting title, eh Johnny-boy?" Zoro snorted as Johnny replied 'aye, aye' in a bored tone, finding it now amusing how entertaining Usopp could be if you looked past the annoying part.

Usopp set his foot on the nose of the ship, Johnny handling the boats direction with paddles and fixing the sails as the neko observed their surroundings, smelling something surprisingly _fishy_. In a literal manner, but he couldn't see any fish flopping on the grounds nor swimming through the waters, but looking at the dock, he spotted three figures with varying sizes and shapes. Getting a closer look, he realized that although they stood on two feet, they were far from 'human', since each of their skin colors—or perhaps it was scales?—was far from peach or tan or brown.

One of the figures had a light cyan hide and a large lower jaw, his upper face pulled down and hidden behind the large, pointy teeth on his lower jaw. Another was taller, but his skin—if compared to an actual human—was a pale gray. And the last one seemed to be the broadest one, his skin a pale pink and wearing sunglasses. Each one, though, had dorsal fins starting from the top of their heads that seemed to go lower under their floral printed shirts.

Zoro's ears attempted to perk high, but ended up causing the tiger discomfort, so he flattened them again, but was still surprised to see _fishmen_ wandering nearby. Especially around the Going Merry. "Are those…?" he asked, diverting Usopp's and Johnny's attention to where he was looking at.

Usopp and Johnny gawked at the humanoids, amusing Zoro quite a bit, but as he gazed longer at the three figures, he realized that their ship had passed by the dock and their caravel, shocking him for a moment, "The hell are you just passing by for?!" he yelled at them, but they each placed a finger in front of their lips in a gesture for the neko to quiet down.

Usopp pointed behind them, looking at Zoro as he began to cry with an angered face, "Didn't you see them?! There were fishmen! The Arlong Pirates for crying out loud! I'm freakin' scared out of my wits, you got a problem with that?! Do ya, punk?!"

Zoro grit his teeth together, annoyed by Usopp's sudden outburst, "The one who should be mad is me." He murmured loudly. He preferred it when the sniper felt confident, but he supposed he would have to get used to it.

Johnny looked at Usopp and brought him back to the nose of the ship, saying, "It's no good… this entire region seems to be under Arlong's control." He looked at the long-nosed sniper and asked, "What should we do, brother Usopp?"

Usopp cupped his hand around his chin, looking out onto the sea in front of them, "Well, now that we know we can't bring Nami back—"

Zoro snapped, "JUST HURRY UP AN UNTIE ME, YOU IDIOTS!" the three of them looked back though when they heard an unfamiliar voice stating that the ship they were currently on was unfamiliar. As Usopp peered behind them to get a better view, he realized that the three fishmen from before had dove into the water and had begun chasing them at rapid speeds.

Usopp squealed at the sight of them and immediately rushed over to the side of the ship, preparing to dive as Johnny followed behind him, "Abandon ship!" Usopp hastily yelled as he dove off the ship.

"Aye, aye!" Johnny followed suit, both landing in the water and swimming away from the ship.

Zoro stared at them, shocked at their actions before finally reacting, "AT LEAST UNTIE ME BEFORE YOU RUN AWAY!" he could hear the splashes of water behind him get louder, and he knew that there was no chance those two were going to return to retrieve him.

As he waited for a few seconds more, he felt the boat creak to the side as a voice accompanied the movement, along with a few, gurgled chuckles, "Looks like I caught up to ya."

"Stop the ship!" Zoro wanted to laugh out loud at his situation right about now.

"Huh, there's only one guy onboard?" They boarded the ship and stared at him with confused glances before they smirked again.

The light cyan one with the big jaw neared him, grinning, "Were ya exiled or somethin'?"

Zoro felt his lips pull into a wide, grim smile, beads of sweat rolling down his face. He felt himself tremble in anger the with an occasional twitch in his eye. He needed to respond, "Yeah… sort of…" he felt himself tremble more, _I swear I'll kill them for this!_

The pale gray one rested his arm on Zoro's knee, the side of his large lips pulled up into a wicked smirk. "I see, then those must be torture wounds?" he asked. Zoro nodded weakly. He sincerely wanted to get a hold of everyone's throats right about now.

"Well, let's take him to Arlong for the time being." The cyan fishman said, grinning, as the pale pink one changed the direction of the boat. The cyan one walked to the edge of the ship and dived back into the water, swimming towards the island—more precisely, where Zoro could smell Usopp and Johnny's track.

Zoro felt bad for a moment, knowing that Usopp and Johnny weren't as strong as he, but that was karma he supposed.

●ω●

Zoro smirked as his boat was led in through the gates he and the other two had passed before, directly in front of the large white building tiled with red roofs. One of the fishmen ordered to open the gates, and as they passed through, Zoro looked at the fishman nearest to him and warned, "Let me just warn you beforehand that I ain't harmless."

●ω●

Zoro frowned darkly, starting to get pissed off at his situation, "I told you already, I came here looking for a single woman!" he studied their fish-like appearance before adding, "You half-fish mutant!"

The 'man' in front of him was huge to be honest—as well as his nose which could compete against Usopp's—his body probably a few three to four heads higher than he himself, but the neko was difficult to intimidate. The fishman bore a pale dull blue hide, his nose barbed and his teeth as sharp as blades. His fingers were all connected with a thick webbing and his hair was similar to that of a black messy lion mane. He sat in front of Zoro in a comfortable wooden pool chair, as the neko himself was forced onto the floor sitting crisscrossed on the pavement, a guard standing tall next to him.

"Oh? An inferior human dares slight me? I'll forgive you just this once but don't you ever call us half-fish again. We fishmen are 'evolved humans' who have gained the ability to breathe in the sea. With our abilities, we're beings of a higher order than you puny humans!" Zoro thought about it for a moment, but wasn't completely convinced. If men like Mihawk existed in the other half of the world, then surely there was a superior species to humans, even though he himself was a complete human either. He stared blankly at the fishman, musing where he would be placed in terms of superiority in the food chain. "Our innate strength which far exceeds of humans is very proof of that! In short, we are 'lords of creation!' Get that through your dense head!" Zoro clicked his barbed tongue. "And so, a human who defies a fishman is essentially defying the 'divine providence of nature!'"

Zoro shifted a little when he heard familiar footsteps coming towards their small little 'group', and as he looked over towards the direction of said footsteps, he was surprised to be met with a familiar smell as well. _Tangerines?_ Zoro was confused. He wasn't sure why he was sensing the presence of Nami all of a sudden, but he was even more surprised when he saw the ginger girl walk outside the entrance of the building and next to Arlong.

"I'm sick of hearing you blab on about that stupid pet theory of yours, Arlong." She said, resting her hands on her hips.

"Na—" Zoro left his jaw hanging for a moment. _What the hell is she doing here?!_ The neko continued to stare as Nami and _Arlong_ spoke with each other, Nami's words filled with distrust and hostility, which, although confused the neko because of the distrust, he couldn't place his finger on why she was with him in the first place.

"No need to make such a scary face, Nami! You're a different case, of course! You're the Arlong Pirate's prized 'cartographer.' You make the most accurate nautical charts!"

Nami frowned, "Of course! My brains' of a much 'higher order' than any of yours!"

Zoro looked at Nami, his frown mixed with a small scowl, "Cartographer…? Hey, Nami, why the hell are you so chummy with these guys for?!" he asked in a loud voice.

Arlong voiced his confusion, "What, are you two acquaintances?"

Nami scoffed as she walked towards the neko, her heels clicking and clacking with every familiar step she made, "Don't be silly, he's just one of my victims. I was able to swindle a huge fortune from these guys during my most recent haul." Zoro stared into Nami's eyes as she stared back at his, scooting closer towards him in a mocking manner. Although he hated to admit it, it almost seemed like an act. Although the actual 'acting' seemed to be convincing, her smell was off, her eyes showed no actual hate, her body wasn't agreeing with her words. He wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. "I knew you guys were chasing me to a certain point, but to think you'd actually make it here."

The tiger glared into her eyes, wanting to bore into her and search for her real intentions. He stared at her, desperately trying to find a factor that would bring to surface her motives, but he couldn't find any. It was three factors against one. Her body, her eyes and her smell vs her words. Three elements that overpowered one that was easily malleable, so easily manipulated by the working gears in her brain. It was impossible to believe she was actually enjoying this. He let out a small huff. "Learn to lie better."

Nami widened her eyes for a moment before glaring back, "Lying? As if. What you're seeing right now is who I really am. I was already a pirate before I joined you, and I simply used your pathetic group to loot." She flicked her hand through her hair, glaring harder into his steel eyes, "This if far from lying."

Zoro's lips turned into a thin smirk, "You say that, but everything about you is giving it away. No point in lying to me, Nami."

Nami's eyes seemed to soften for a moment, hiding her eyes for a moment under her bangs, "Pitiful."

 _Strange word choice_. Zoro was convinced. She hated what she was doing, and yet, she continued. It was possible it was because Arlong was too strong, and she was too weak, as seen before when he fought alongside her when defending Usopp's village, but there had to be something more.

Arlong began to laugh, his chortles deafening to the neko's flattened ears. "She had you completely strung along! This girl right here would do anything for the sake of money. Even forget the death of her own parent! She's a real cold-blooded witch!"

Zoro watched as the air around Nami suddenly grow freezing cold, her smell undistinguishable between sadness, anger, fear and despair. _Something more than just strength_.

"Tricking people to swindle them is like her second nature! Moreover, she's got us as her backup!"

The tiger glanced at Arlong then back at Nami. If he wanted to play his cards right, for the sake of Nami most of all, he had to play along. Act like he didn't know anything. Speak like he never really knew her. Speak of her as if she were the devil herself, "I see. Well, it's not like I really trusted her anyways. Wouldn't surprise me even if she turned out to be a devilish cutthroat." Nami glared at him. "Right from the very beginning, I had a feeling you were a good-for-nothing woman." He chuckled.

Nami stood up, a grim smile on her tired expression, "Well then, that makes things easier. If you've realized that was only tricking you, then can you just give up on your treasure and my navigation skills and disappear already? You're an eyesore."

Zoro smirked, before it turned into a grin, "Okay then." He said, before jumping back using the force of his back and thigh muscles alone, since his ankles and wrists were tied from before. Everyone looked on in shock, wondering what they had just witnessed, as Zoro sank deeper into the waters of the narrow pool.

He sank deeper into the salty sea, his grin never leaving. This was his way of really confirming whether or not whose side she preferred. If she didn't come for him, then he had just committed a suicide that he didn't think was too fit for him, but if she did, then he would thank the gods above that she still had some heart in her. A few seconds passed, and once he ran out of air, he thought that she really wasn't going to come for him, but he made out a thin figure above the water jump in, the ginger girl's smell completely washed away—the smell of _tangerines_ washed away—and he felt his smirk return as she hauled him back up to the surface.

As they made it onto the pavement, his face against the floor as he tried to get refreshing air through ragged pants. His tail was now soaked, as well as his pants which weren't really made to retract as much water as possible, but instead both absorbed water like a sponge. His legs felt uncomfortably heavy and he was starting to have second choices of his decision, but he was glad he now knew the truth.

"Hey, what's the meaning of this, Nami?" Arlong asked. Although he seemed patient, Zoro could feel the anger residing somewhere in there. He smirked. _That guy just wanted me dead. No wonder._ Zoro coughed a few times, his lungs attempting to dispel the water.

Nami hefted herself up and growled at the tiger, which he didn't really mind. Not like she knew what a growl for the neko population meant either way. "What's the big idea?" she asked coldly, her words icy.

Zoro coughed a bit more, turning his face to face her with a wide smirk and deadly glare, "I should ask you the same thing. A small-time crook like you who can't even let one person die shouldn't be actin' all tough!" he crooked his eyebrow, mocking her, "And be quicker next time, slowpoke. Almost thought I was a goner…"

Nami almost looked terrified, as if her defenses had been knocked down and had been unable to rebuild themselves fast enough. She probably felt weak and defenseless now, which made sense since she resorted to violence to regain her crumbling composure. She stomped on his face, pressing his stomach on the pavement in a swift motion, "Don't you get cheeky with me!" he grunted in pain, but as she pulled him up by the throat to face her, he couldn't help but grin, "If you get involved with me anymore than this, you're a dead man!"

Zoro replayed her words 'If you get involved with me anymore than this, you're a dead man' over and over again, finding a different meaning behind them than the actual threat. She was easy to see through. "I wonder…"

Nami attempted to heft him up higher, looking at him with lifeless and bored eyes. She eyed him, staring at his exposed bandages neatly covering his chest like a short-sleeved shirt. "Some bandages you've got there."

Zoro smirked, "I just didn't have any change of clothes. That's all."

Nami's eyes grew cold as she released his throat. As he fell, she brought her arm forward and punched him head on his wound, continuous chains of trembles of pain and shock coursing through his body like an electrical circuit that started in his chest. He laid on the floor as the ginger girl left him behind, walking towards Arlong and the rest of the fishmen as he groaned and attempted to keep in any more distressed sounds of pain and obvious discomfort.

"Hey, Nami, what're you gonna do with him?"

"Lock him up for now. I'll put an end to him later." She replied with a cold voice. If he weren't a neko, he would've been convinced that she had completely backstabbed Luffy and everyone else, but if he weren't currently still in the process of healing—which he couldn't really do right now at the risk of getting his identity exposed—he would've brought a quick end to Arlong and everyone else. After calming down the 'electrical circuit' painfully electrocuting his chest, he found it a good time as ever to purr silently. He imagined he might be getting into a fight sooner than he thought, and it was best he was in the best shape he could be to do so. If anyone approached him that wasn't someone he trusted, then he would stop.

"Arlong!" Zoro looked at the fishman who walked into the fenced area, facing the captain of their pirate group. He was the same light cyan one with the big jaw who had jumped off the boat after Usopp and Johnny when they had left him, and Zoro suddenly felt like he himself had abandoned them, although it was the other way around.

"What is it, my fellow brother?"

"There was another long-nosed human who got away!"

Zoro scowled. As much as he wanted to get a grab at their air pipes, he didn't want to see them dead, yet. _Usopp? Damn, so they found out about him after all…_ he looked at Nami, seeing a hurt expression on her face.

"I think he's probably hiding in Cocoyashi Village somewhere."

"Cocoyashi Village…? It just so happened that I had some business to attend there." Arlong said as he grinned, exposing all his razor sharp teeth for everyone to see.

●ω●

The ropes were easily sliced off by the dagger in Nami's hand, and soon Zoro was wringing his wrists and ankles, comfortable now that the blood in his body began to circulate properly again. "Now hurry up and get out of here before Arlong comes back!"

Zoro looked at Nami, humming out in recognition at her plea.

●ω●

The fights were simple, he didn't really break much of a sweat at all, so now he just sat bored in Arlong's wooden chair, his arms crossed under his head and his leg over his knee. The neko, although not the best at it, was currently thinking, "Even if she tells me to leave, I don't have anything to do outside of here. After all, I promised Luffy to bring her back. Jeez, seems like I've gotten myself tied up in a complicated mess."

After sitting around for a while, a trumpet sounded off not too far from where he comfortably sat, no less further than the outer gates, "What's that trumpet noise I heard just now…?" he sat up and lifted himself off the chair, walking towards where he heard the sound. He made it to the inner gates and jumped up, climbing his way up onto the top of the gates and peered down where he was met with another fishman holding a large roasted pig on a thin stick. "Was that you who blew that trumpet just now?" he asked curiously.

The fishman was stranger than the other ones, his white hair split into five parts like a sea star and bore light pink skin, sporting six, sucker-bearing arms and a mouth strangely shaped similar to a trumpet, "W-who are you?! Who, me? I'm Hacchan! You can call me Hachi!"

Zoro tilted his head a little to the side, "So you're a fishman, too?"

"Yup, yup! I'm a charming octopus fishman! I feel like I've seen you somewhere before… are you with the marines? Or are you a guest?"

Zoro thought about it for a moment, humming in thought, "Guest? Yeah, I'm probably more of a guest."

"But, you know, Arlong's not here right now."

"Yeah, he's not. Where'd he go?"

"It seems that this long nosed intruder got away from us. We already have one of his companions tied up here, but Arlong went to Cocoyashi Village to go catch the other human!"

Zoro huffed out in slight annoyance, barely though, _Must be Usopp…. Well, I guess I'll go save him in the meanwhile…_ "How can I get to that village?" he asked.

The octopus fishman Hacchan pointed with five of his arms towards a brown pot residing in the water, "Get on! You're a guest, aren't you? I'll give you a lift!" Zoro stared at the 'boat', feeling a bit unsafe staring at it, for all he knew, he could just easily fall out or have water flood in at any moment, but he deemed it best for getting to where he currently wanted to go.

 _Guess I have no other choice._

●ω●

"What's that?" Luffy asked over Yosaku's screaming. His tail whipped from side to side, a few drops of water falling onto him and Sanji.

"It's huge…" Sanji said, staring at the abnormality before them all. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, not out of fear but because of shock from the sudden appearance of the… cow?

Luffy had sensed its presence not too long ago, but wasn't completely expecting it to appear in front of their small sail boat. "IT'S A SEA MONSTER!" Yosaku yelled, scrambling around their ship as if that would do much good.

The _sea monster_ was extremely similar to that of a cow, with big, pointed horns and dark green splotches covering its whole body, but decorating its back was a spiked elongated dorsal fin, its underside covered in tan scales and its neck bearing long gills. Its nose was pierced with a golden ring and instead of hooves, it had fins. The cow monster sniffed the air continuously, but as Luffy stared it longer, he realized that it was definitely confused. The neko cocked his head.

"Hey!" he called out to the beast, shocking Yosaku who attempted to shut him up, while Sanji watched Luffy attempt to get more words out of his mouth, wondering, _what else could he do?_ "Hey! Cow thing! What's wrong?" he asked, pulling Yosaku away from him.

"No! Don't anger it!" Yosaku warned Luffy who simply pushed him away again, "What's it even doing in East Blue?! It's inconceivable! This is a Grand Line monster!" Luffy looked at Yosaku in curiosity, slightly amazed that he would be able to meet more creatures similar to this.

The cow monster leaned in forward, tilting its head to the side as it shared glances between the neko and the food they had been eating earlier, _"Hungry…"_ it said, and Luffy glared at it for a moment, unsure if he was willing to give his food to the beast, _"A cat? I smell a cat-human… are you one?"_

Luffy took a step forward and attempted to get as close to the cow beast as possible, "Hey, Luffy, watch out." Sanji warned him as the neko nodded.

"Don't worry, Sanji." He looked at the cow and smiled, "Yeah, I'm a neko."

The cow seemed to brighten considerably, _"So that means you can understand me?"_

Luffy grinned wider, "Yep! You said you were hungry, right! I can ask Sanji if we can give you some!" the jaguar turned to Sanji but frowned, turning back to the cow, "But you can't have my meat. That's only for me." The cow sea monster dimmed a little, but the rest didn't seem all too bad.

Luffy looked at Sanji and with a wide grin, he said, "Hey, Sanji, the cow thing is hungry! Give it something."

Sanji blew out a bit of smoke and studied their meal, choosing which dish would be best to give to the sea monster that wasn't meat. He picked a dish that laid untouched by nobody, so he thought it was best to give it to the beast, "Luffy," the neko looked at him, still staring at the large creature, "I'm guessing you can understand it?" he asked, now next to the black-haired teenager.

"Yeah. We're practically half animal and half human, so we can still understand and communicate with other animals and people, too." Sanji hummed, giving Luffy the plate as the sea monster leaned in and with a small nip, swallowed the meal whole—as well as the plate which Sanji found annoying. "You like it? Sanji's an amazing cook!" the neko asked the cow monster who nodded happily.

" _Yes! It was even better than Octopus Man's roasted pig. Tell Black Suit it was delicious!"_ the cow monster licked Luffy with its large tongue, taking the teenager a few feet off the boat and wet with saliva, _"Perhaps you can give me more?"_

Luffy studied himself for a moment, unsure of what to think with his slobbered state, but thought nothing negative about it since cats were also known to lick quite a lot of stuff. He looked up at the cow though and tilted his head, "Black Suit?" he looked at his newest member, "You mean Sanji?" the beast nodded, "Sure!" the neko looked at Sanji with a wide grin, "Sanji, he says it was delicious! He also wants to know if we can give him more!"

The cook smirked as Yosaku stared in awe, "Glad he liked it, but, we don't actually have much to share for him. Unless of course you don't want to eat." Sanji told Luffy and the cow, to which the neko immediately denied.

"Sorry. We don't have any more food we can give you." Luffy looked at the cow and smiled, "Do you have a name?" he asked, and the cow nodded.

" _Yes. The fishmen call me Mohmoo. Mind if I ask yours?"_

"I'm Luffy. Sanji is the one who cooks and that person over there is Yosaku." He looked at the man with the green sweater, who still seemed unconfident in their situation, "He's kinda scared of you, though."

"And if I am?! Do you really blame me?" Yosaku interrupted, but immediately hid himself more.

Luffy laughed and Sanji smirked, "His name is Mohmoo." Luffy told Sanji, who was the only other person not afraid of the beast anymore, "You said the fishmen call you that?" Mohmoo nodded.

The blonde walked over in front of Mohmoo and asked, "Then do you know the island where the Arlong Pirates are currently in? It'd be great if you could tow us there. Our boat isn't that heavy, either, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Mohmoo looked at the blonde and nodded, _"Of course I could take you there. It isn't far, so we should get there fairly quickly."_

Luffy laughed and told Sanji that Mohmoo could indeed take them there, to which Sanji smirked and Yosaku gawked.

The three settled in their small boat, tying spare ropes they had onto Mohmoo's horns and as they began to move, they could immediately feel the difference, their speeds much more efficient than before, "Yahoo! We're gonna get there in no time!" Luffy cheered, bringing his fists into the air as his tail waved happily.

●ω●

"We're here! This is Cocoyashi Village. Arlong should be here somewhere." Zoro hopped off the pot, his feet landing on the docks, his tail slightly damp but otherwise normal.

"Alright, thanks." He said, turning back to the octopus-man.

"Don't mention it! Take care! And come visit again!" the fishman took the pot and commenced to go where they had come from—back to Arlong Park, "Bye then!"

"Yeah…" Zoro raised his hand in a way to wave back to say goodbye, but found the humanoid peculiar, "He's a strange fishman, alright…" he turned around, his hand caressing Wado, his only sword (since his other two were destroyed during his fight with Mihawk) as he stared at the simple village before him. Few palm trees were planted every few houses and a small round table with two chairs and a straw umbrella shading it. The pathway he was on was rimmed with very small shrubs, as tropical bushes decorated the outskirts of the small village, "So that saw-nose is in this town too, huh…" he took a small step forward, "Well, whatever… I'll look for our long-nose first."

He walked into the village, studying his surroundings and sniffing out for Usopp, but realized that either Usopp suddenly took a very clean bath or he was far away. He stopped in his tracks and looked around, seeing no one to ask if they had seen one of his comrades, and so he cursed under his breath but his ears attempted to poise high, but was once again stopped by the bandana he wore. He looked to the one guilty of the noise and noticed an average man, coming out of his house.

"Is there something you need, sir?" he asked formally, a grim look in his eyes.

Zoro, not expecting to have been approached so easily and briefly wondering if many people recognized me, answered back to the man, "Oh, uh, have you seen a guy with a long nose and brown overalls?"

The man thought about it for a moment before replying, "Yes, but…" Zoro stared at him, thinking of all the possibilities that could come after that 'but', "He was taken to Arlong Park already. I'm sure he's soon to be dead by now."

Zoro began to sweat, "What? Usopp was taken to Arlong Park?!"

"Yeah, I just saw him being taken there…"

Zoro slapped his forehead, wanting to rip something up. So far, today was definitely not his day, "Son of a—! I just missed him!" he frantically looked around, hoping that he could track down an area where Usopp's smell of gunpowder was the strongest, but found that even then the smell was almost nothing. _Damn it! I was just there!_

His hand gripped Wado's handle, threatening to pull it out and slice it into something—something with the blood of a fish.

●ω●

"YAHOO! FASTER, FASTER!" Luffy cheered, the large cow beast veering its dorsal and pectoral fins to intensify their speed through the salty waters, "Full speed ahead to Arlong Park!"

After a bit more riding, Luffy's advanced vision easily caught sight of a large white building with red tiled roofs a few minutes before Sanji and Yosaku. "I can see Arlong Park!" the cow beast mooed.

"You tired, Mohmoo?" Sanji asked, strangely compassionate. He mooed again.

Luffy smiled, "Don't worry, Mohmoo. We're almost there." Mohmoo nodded, but it was clear to everyone who was watching that the sea cow was tired, too tired in fact that it hadn't realized that its speed hadn't minimized as it neared the coast. They passed the gates of Arlong Park and headed off towards the right, "Hey, Mohmoo! You're swimming the wrong way! Turn left!" Luffy quickly told Mohmoo, but the cow almost seemed hypnotized, "It's this building, isn't it?!"

Yosaku clutched his pounding head with his hands, screaming, "WE'RE GONNA CRASHE INTO THE SHORE!"

Sanji and Yosaku screamed in terror as they suddenly—along with the boat—were sent flying through the air when Mohmoo crashed onto the rocky shore, the neko actually enjoying himself as he screamed in delight with his hands in the air, laughing.

Zoro stopped in his tracks, swearing he was hearing a sound that was growing louder each second. It sounded oddly familiar, and the tiger wasn't completely sure if it was coming towards him, but the soundwaves were definitely growing towards his direction, but there was nothing around him that seemed to be charging at him, so he continued to run.

Luffy continued to cheer, Sanji holding onto the railing and Yosaku holding tightly on the mast pole, "It's like we're really flying!"

Sanji wanted to kick his new captain, "THAT'S BECAUSE WE _WERE_ SENT FLYING, YOU IDIOT!"

Yosaku thought he was going to die, "WE'RE GONNA FALL!"

Sanji peeked over the rail, seeing only trees, "WE'RE GONNA CRASH INTO THE TREES!" they all screamed, watching the trees grow.

They crashed through the trees, multiple plants and vegetation probably destroyed by their landing. They all managed to stay inside the boat, but they had unluckily fallen into a part of a forest that was the slope of a hill, causing them to continue to race downwards at accelerating speeds that they were definitely not capable of stopping on their own. "Whoa! We've landed!" Luffy said, hopping onto the railing next to Sanji with his hand over his hat, preventing it from flying off his head. His tail flapped like a loose rope caught in a tornado, a few leaves caught in it.

"BUT WE'RE NOT STOPPING!" Sanji and Yosaku simultaneously said.

Zoro felt his adrenaline pumping, and his senses had begun to go haywire. Not only his senses, but his body desperately wanted to dodge some mysterious force. He couldn't see anything, but he supposed that if his body was going to annoy him during his whole trip, he might as well stop. He spotted Arlong's Park in front of him and cursed. He couldn't stop. If he stopped, he would be wasting many seconds of Usopp's life, and he was right in front of him! He couldn't stop, so instead of halting, he continued to run, hoping that whatever his body was tingling about, he would pass by it. But although he wanted to ignore it, he couldn't deny what he had head: a loud crash, as if someone dropped a bomb on the island. He wanted to curse. If it was a bomb, then there was almost no chance someone would survive.

"Well, in any case, I have to hurry up or Usopp will be k—" his body shot a freezing current throughout his head all the way to his toes and tail, leaving him numb for a second. _Guess that means that I'm dead cat meat._ He couldn't deny it now. That current his body shocked him with was a final warning, a final warning that concluded that unless he was fast enough, he was a goner.

He stopped, the shock freezing his whole body in a bask of cold water, and looked over to where the sound from before had begun to grow, from the cracking and moaning of trees to the screams that grew in sound. His eyes widened when instead of something intimidating (not that he _would_ intimidated by it), a small wooden boat crashed through the trees, the screaming he could tell were mixed with delightful laughter that he could only describe as…

"LUFFY?!"

Luffy stopped laughing, his thrilled smile turning into a surprised and overjoyed smile, "Oh! Zoro!"

"BRO!"

Zoro caught sight of Yosaku hanging on the mast pole, almost on the verge of tears, but also noticed an extra head with blonde hair, but before he could properly study the new face, he was taken by the boat and his lungs were momentarily squeezed out of their air, the vehicle taking the four as far as who knows how far.

When the boat stopped, it was broken into a hundred pieces, Luffy getting up and dusting himself off as Sanji decided to take a seat on the broken railing that laid on the floor, asking Yosaku is he was alright since he was the only one remaining in the rubble.

Zoro rubbed his green hair, feeling a bit off blood drip down onto his chin from a new cut on his forehead, "THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" he yelled at Luffy.

"What do you mean? We've obviously come to get Nami back. Haven't you found her yet?" Luffy responded, staring at the swordsman with a confused look.

Zoro continued to comb his fingers through his short hair, frequently rubbing over his white ears. "Shit, where'd my bandana go…?" he asked to himself, searching the area around him, "Luffy, hide your tail and ears." He ordered Luffy, who stuck out his tongue at him but abided either way, wrapping his black tail around his waist. Zoro looked at Sanji who stared at him back with curious eyes.

"Oh, so you _are_ a neko…." Sanji said, observing the white tail that followed Zoro's rear. "'Hide your ears and tail', right?" the blonde said, pointing at Zoro's exposed appendage.

Zoro followed where Sanji was pointing and huffed out in annoyance, about to tuck in his tail in his pants and to tie his bandana around his head once he had found it in the grass behind him when Luffy asked him a question that sent him mind whirring.

"Where's Usopp and Johnny?"

"Usopp?" Zoro's eyes widened as he immediately charged towards the direction of Arlong's Park, "Oh crap! Now's not the time to be wasting time!" he said redundantly.

"Hm?" Luffy smelled the slight fear around Zoro, and asked him what's wrong.

"That idiot got himself caught by Arlong! If we don't hurry up, he'll be k—"

"HE WAS ALREADY KILLED!" a familiar voice interrupted him from continuing. Zoro caught sight of Johnny with his peripheral vision and as he looked towards his 'brother', everyone followed, "It's too late."

Zoro paused, not understanding, "… Johnny…?"

A dank and damp air surrounded Johnny, mixed with the smell of chopped onions and a bit of ash. In actuality, he was feeling a flurry of emotions, but those three were the most evident, especially sadness and fear, "BROTHER USOPP… WAS MURDERED BY SISTER NAMI!"

All four were shocked, the one who was the least surprised was Sanji since he hadn't gotten to know her very well, but was nonetheless still surprised to hear that that lovely girl had killed someone recently.

Yosaku was horrified, his irises constricting to small dots.

Luffy… he couldn't believe that. It was impossible to believe. Her body never showed any signs of ever having the intentions of betraying them, especially to the point where she would _murder_ one of _her_ friends. Her smell, body and essentially everything about her never pointed to the door of betrayal; she always seemed so sincere and happy hanging out with them that it was completely impossible that she ever wanted to leave them behind. But… it wasn't impossible. His senses for reading other people's emotions weren't as amazing and acute as Makino's, but he still considered himself to be good at it. He just didn't want to believe it. Impossible. Unimaginable. Unbelievable. Nami… everything, in fact, pointed away from that door.

Zoro felt a snarl escape his lips. He could smell Luffy's confusion, and he knew very well why. He was probably thinking the same thing he thought when he was held prisoner at Arlong's Park. Her body, her smell, her eyes, her actions, the lies in her words, it was just simply impossible that she ever had any _real_ intentions of just looting and betraying them, and to simply _kill_ Usopp seemed far from her capabilities. Jumping into the water and her saving him was proof that she simply couldn't let one of the Strawhats die—one of her _friends—_ much less kill them. Although he didn't mend well with her, it was impossible to believe that she would ever kill Usopp.

The air around them grew cold for a moment, before Luffy snapped, "SAY IT ONE MORE TIME AND I SWEAR I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!" the jaguar lunged at Johnny, but Zoro lunged after him, holding Luffy back.

"Luffy, stop! It's not as if Johnny's the one at fault here!" he understood his anger though. If Luffy really did pay attention to her, then he would be angry at Johnny for jumping to such a conclusion. If Johnny had been anyone else, Zoro might've done the same.

"WELL HE'S MAKING UP BULLCRAP!" Luffy shouted, trembling in anger, "THERE'S NO WAY THAT NAMI WOULD KILL USOPP! WE'RE CREWMATES!" he added, "IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" Zoro knew that.

He murmured, "I know it doesn't. don't worry, Luffy, I have a vague idea of what's going on." Luffy seemed to calm down a bit after this, but was still nonetheless angry at Johnny.

Zoro's and Luffy's ears perked high, Luffy softening his grip as they recognized the footsteps gaining on them, "It's fine if you don't want to believe it…! But I saw it with my very own eyes...!" Luffy ignored him, looking over to where the path continued to civilization.

"Nami…" Zoro said, unsure of how to react if someone else were to react negatively towards her.

She took one more step forward, a good distance away from them before speaking, "Just who did you call crewmates, Luffy?" she said coldly. When Luffy didn't respond, she continued, "What did you come to this island for?" she held a long baton, the length of it covered in blood which both nekos could easily identify.

Luffy released Johnny, standing up straight and with a blank look as he rested his hand on top of his straw hat, "What're you talking about? Aren't we crewmates? We've come for you, of course!"

Nami crossed her arms, "Well, you're nothing but a nuisance." Luffy stared at her left hand which was hidden by a black glove, a faint but noticeable smell of iron definitely there. The jaguar looked at Zoro, who seemed to have noticed the metallic smell as well, and had concluded that it was coming from Nami's hand. "And 'crewmates'? Don't make me laugh. It was nothing but a stupid little cooperation. Luffy stared blankly at her. Although she wasn't straight out lying, the lie was visible to a cats' senses.

Sanji butted in and with an excited look, he waved at her, a blush dancing across his cheeks, "Na-Nami! It's me! Do you remember me? Let's set sail together!"

Zoro shot a look at him, "Shut up! Can't you see you're making things more complicated by butting in?!"

Sanji countered quickly, "What was that? Don't you know love is always a hurricane?!"

Johnny pointed an accusing finger at her, and in a loud voice, he proclaimed, "I told you so! She's a witch! If it means she can get her hands on the treasure hidden in her village, she'll gladly join the Arlong Pirates and even kill! She's a cold-blooded witch through and through! You've all been deceived right from the start! And I swear I saw her stabbing Usopp!"

Nami's lips twitched into a small grin, her eyebrows crooking inwards, giving Johnny a mocking look, "So what? Would you like to try ad avenge him?"

The bounty hunter took a step back, "What…?"

She continued again, "Let me tell you one thing. After the idiotic stunt that Zoro pulled, Arlong wants Roronoa Zoro and all his companions dead. No matter how monstrously strong you may all be, you're no match at all for a real monster."

Zoro thought about his ranking once again, concluding that cats were predators of fish. It was an easy way to figure it out. If she thought they couldn't be monsters, then she needed to study nekos more, "I couldn't care less about that." It was true. What point was there thinking about which species was superior? As long as you could beat them, then it was over, "Where's Usopp?" he asked.

Nami grinned, "At the bottom of the ocean."

Zoro instinctively let his hand rest on Wado, such calm and uncaring behavior for a topic that mattered to him usually pissed him off, but, as much as he hated to admit it, he didn't believe her. He bared his teeth for a moment and let out a small hiss, but didn't approach her.

"If you want to die, that's fine, but I'd rather not have outsiders stick their noses in this island's affairs anymore. Do you still not get it? I only stuck around with you for the money! And now that you don't even have a cent, I couldn't care less about you!" she said, crossing her arms before letting them rest back at her sides, her right hand holding the long baton, "If it's about the ship, I'll give it back. So go find another navigator and go search for your little _One Piece_ or whatever! NOW GET OFF THIS ISLAND! YOU'RE AN EYESORE!" she smirked, her eyes so dark it looked like she hadn't slept for days, "Farewell."

Luffy stared at her before letting his whole body go limp, letting himself fall on the ground unceremoniously. "Brother Luffy!" Johnny cried out.

Luffy sighed. He really needed to think about how to handle this situation, "I'm gonna sleep." He said, closing his eyes and crossing his arms under his hand, creating a makeshift pillow.

"SLEEP?!" everyone was shocked and surprised, not understanding why Luffy made such a decision. Even Zoro—who knew Luffy better than anyone—was confused and slightly annoyed. "IN THIS EMERGENCY?! AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?!"

Luffy made a face that defined perfectly how much he really cared: almost _none_. "I don't feel like leaving this island yet and I don't really care what's going on in this island either…" he then added, "and I'm sleepy. So I'm sleeping."

Sanji, Yosaku and Johnny gawked at Luffy, wondering what was wrong with his head, but Zoro felt like he was doing this for a purpose. When he said that he didn't feel like leaving the island yet, perhaps he meant that he was going to convince her to bring her back? It was also in Luffy's carefree nature that most likely led him to not care for the island, but the tiger really did believe that Luffy still wanted Nami back. Being a neko, they could easily see past her lies, and so he should've guessed by now that something was up with her history, but he didn't seem to be doing much about it. Unless he was using his 'sleep' as an excuse to think, which wasn't too improbable, either.

"FINE, DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT! YOU CAN DIE FOR ALL I CARE!" Nami screamed.

●ω●

"You're all out of your minds! It's as that insane witch just said! Brother Usopp's been killed and Arlong's out to get us!" Yosaku yelled at them, mainly Luffy, "Just what reason do you have for staying on this island any longer?! I, for one, believe in what Johnny said he saw!"

Johnny joined in, "It's only been a short while, but I'm afraid this is where we must part. We have no desire to be hunted down and killed by Arlong!"

Zoro glowered at the two, "Fine." They weren't nekos. They couldn't sense the pure lies stringed in Nami's words and the falseness appearing in every move she made, so he couldn't blame them. If he remembered correctly what Usopp's blood smelled like during Kuro's, then it was definitely there, which could either mean that she did indeed kill someone and washed away as much as she could or Usopp was bleeding before she got her hands on him. Judging from the fact that Usopp was weak and being chased by _fishmen_ , then it was easy to believe the latter.

"May we meet again someday!" Yosaku waved back.

"Take care, my brothers!"

Zoro turned around, not facing them, "You too." He replied with an emotionless tone that Sanji caught on easily.

Sanji scooted a tad closer to the tiger, but there was still a wide gap in between the two, "Hey."

"What?" Zoro replied, their captain sleeping on the floor closer to Zoro.

"You think Nami really killed long-nose?" the blonde asked, watching Zoro's white tail flick to the side as soon as he said that. He wondered if he was actually going to charge into Arlong Park with his tail and ears exposed when he himself told Luffy to hide them before Johnny appeared, but if Usopp really did die, then there was no point, right?

The tiger frowned. Waiting a few, silent seconds before responding, "No."

Sanji looked a bit surprised, but Zoro could make out a small smile, "Really? From the way you were glaring at her, I thought you were going to attack her or something." He quickly added with a small glare, "But I would've kicked your ass for that."

Zoro whipped his tail at the last comment but didn't touch upon it, "That was because she was talking about a topic that mattered to me indifferently, as if it really was easy to kill Usopp."

"Then? Why do you think she didn't do it?"

"Because she doesn't have the guts." He smirked, "And besides, nekos have an acute sense of telling if someone is lying." Sanji looked confused, a wondrous look decorating his face.

"You guys can tell if someone is lying?" he asked, looking almost fascinated.

Zoro looked at the blonde and replied, "Luffy didn't tell you much about us, I assume." Sanji shook his head, placing a lit cigarette into his mouth. The tiger turned around to look at Luffy, "I guess we can tell you some things later, but yeah, one thing we can do is tell if someone is lying. But it's not like a sense of its own. It actually depends a lot on someone's emotions. We can easily tell by the smells they give off." Sanji stared at him, wanting him to give an example, "Like… for example… when someone feels scared it smells like someone decided to have an onion party or when someone's angry, it smells like fire or ash."

Sanji caught on (chuckling at the description of having to constantly smell onions when someone was scared), now piecing together how Luffy managed to catch on everyone's feelings and emotions as if they themselves had told him. He hummed in recognition and decided to sum up what emotions had to do with telling if someone is lying, "So, can you tell if someone is lying if their emotions don't match up or something? Does it have a name?"

Zoro nodded, "Something like that. I'm pretty sure it's a bit more complicated, but that's the base of it. If I remember correctly, I think it's called something like _Emotion Revelation_ , or something like that, but that's only for determining emotions. Not sure about the one that has to do with the lies." Sanji hummed, resting against the tree and attempting to look past the leaves above him.

"What gave Nami away?" he asked after a comfortable silence.

Zoro thought about it. Every single time it seemed like she was lying, her smell was sad and a tinge of fear as well, sometimes anger would appear out of nowhere and the onion smell would spike up when Arlong spoke sometimes, especially when he spoke about her parent. Not only that, but her eyes would waver, her body would shake, and her past actions and emotions were pure. In the beginning, he didn't trust her, because it only was in the beginning that her only intentions were to gain money. Afterwards, she bonded with everyone they came across, with a sincere smile and laugh. When they came across Usopp and his problem, she wanted to help him along with Luffy, because she truly cared for him despite not knowing him very well. Even now, she doesn't seem know him to any special extent, but it was obvious that she had fun spending time with him and Luffy. He wasn't too sure about his and her bond though; he himself didn't get too attached to her. After a long while, he replied with, "Everything."

Sanji stared at him, his eyes blank. He was probably thinking about his answer. The tiger's ears perked up high, though, when he heard footsteps. His hand clutched onto Wado but he released its handle after he immediately recognized the footsteps rapidly running towards them, "Zoro!"

He turned around, along with Sanji. Luffy woke up as well, his closed eyes widening by the voice, "Usopp?"

"Oh thank god! I though you might've gone to Arlong Park!" Usopp ran up to Zoro, panting when he was in front of the tiger, "I'm so glad you're here!"

Luffy quickly got up and pounced on Usopp, his tail wagging happily, "Usopp! You're here!"

"Ah, Luffy! You're here too?" he asked, but his confusion turned into boastfulness as he grinned and jabbed his thumb onto his chest, puffing it out like a proud soldier, "Of course! You guys would be crying and having trouble if I wasn't here!" he boasted, a wide smile painted on his face.

Sanji stood up and stepped next to Luffy, a mocking yet happy smile decorating his face as he brought his hand up in a sort of greeting, "I've decided to come along. Nice to meet you."

Usopp gawked at the blonde, "You…! I'll kill you one of these days!" as he regained a calmer demeanor, his lips turned into a very noticeable frown, his features darkening. He looked worse than Nami, in Zoro's opinion, "In any case, the problem is Nami." He paused, looking at the three who seemed to have read his mind. For the nekos, it was obvious, and Zoro's explanation to Sanji seemed to have convinced the cook, "She saved my life." Luffy and Sanji smiled softly while Zoro smirked, his tail twitching in contentment, "If you ask me, there must be some reason why she ended up joining the Arlong Pirates."

Zoro and Luffy's ears perked, having heard a single pair of footsteps that were nearing them from behind Usopp. The steps were calm and soft, but judging from the 'click clack' they made, the person was wearing hard heels. The nekos watched as a slim figure walk over to them, appearing a few feet away from them, behind their sniper. "It's useless." The girl had short purple hair, strikingly familiar to Nami's, "No matter what you do, you won't be able to change Arlong's rule."

"Nojiko." Usopp said, mildly surprised to see her.

"Who's she?" Luffy asked Usopp.

"She's Nami's sister." He replied casually.

Sanji immediately reacted, his visible eye becoming a large, pink heart as he slapped his palms on his cheeks, "N-N-Nami's sister! Well, it's no wonder why she's so beautiful then!" the three ignored him.

Zoro butted in, completely forgetting a _very_ important factor, "What do you mean useless?"

Nojiko stared at him, her eyes slowly widening as she let her arms drop to her sides, as if they didn't work anymore. She mouthed a few incomprehensible words, before saying softly but loud enough for everyone to hear, "A cat tail?"

The four pirates stilled, all of their faces going pale. Zoro grit his teeth as his tail instinctively puffed a bit and his ears laid back against his head, "L-look! You're Nami's sister, right?" she nodded, smiling.

Then she giggled.

Then she started laughing.

"Don't worry." She started, waving her hand in front of her dismissively, "I wouldn't do anything that would lead into another being living a hard life. I don't think many people in this village would." Her face darkened considerably, "C'mon. It'd be best if you don't involve yourselves with this village any further, please." She rested her hands on her hips, "I'll tell you all about how things got this way, so in return, I want you to just leave quietly."

Luffy shook his head and turned away, taking the path towards the wilderness as Zoro and Sanji sat back down on the grassy small hill, the tiger taking Sanji's previous tree as Sanji sat down in front of him, "I'm fine. I'm not really interested in her past." He started to walk away from them, "I'm taking a walk."

Usopp called after him, "Take a walk? You're not going to listen?"

"No, I'm cool." He replied, not looking back.

Nojiko looked a bit unsettled and confused, "What's with him?" she asked.

Zoro smirked, the tip of his tail swaying peacefully, was Sanji found very amusing, "Don't mind him. That's just the kind of guy he is." _Especially for someone who has already gained enough information_ , he thought. He felt his eyes droop, "But we'll listen to what you have to say. Though I doubt hearing your story will change anything." After he said that, he closed his eyes, allowing loud snores to escape.

Nojiko pointed it out, "… But you're sleeping."

Usopp interjected, "DON'T JUST FALL ASLEEP AS SOON AS YOU SAY THAT!" he turned to Nojiko and with a surprisingly serious expression, he said, "Well, I for one, will listen to understand what's going on."

Sanji smiled wide, his visible eye closed in delight, "Me too."

Zoro was still listening, though. His curiosity had given in, but sleeping would quicken the healing process for his wound, and knowing Luffy, a fight was inevitable to come. Healing now would be the best choice for now and as his body amended to its own needs, he would give in to the craving his mind wanted to know of Nami's past. Luffy might not want any part in listening to her history, but it was possible he would pick up hints on how to fight the fishmen, so he decided to listen.

●ω●

Zoro felt his fingers wringing and twitching for something to hold, so he resorted to holding Wado, keeping in mind it was his precious katana he was holding. Hearing Nami's story was displeasing and undesirable for anybody. Especially since she was subjected to such a life that required her practically be a cartographer slave for that pathetic fishman. _And at such a young age, too. Nami's probably suffered more than most men…_

"Ever since that day eight years ago, that girl decided to not show her tears to anyone and never ask for help…" Nojiko looked at the ground, the soft ground soil suddenly interesting, "All because she doesn't want to see anyone to be killed by Arlong… just like our mother was…" she turned to Sanji, who was concentrated on the story being told, "Do you have any idea how painful it was for her to make that decision to fight alone and continue to live on when she was barely _ten years old_?

Usopp thumbed his nose, forcing the tip upwards, "So in order to save her village, she forced herself to join the very pirates who killed her mother…"

Sanji exploded in rage, jolting Zoro's eyes for a second, "HOW DARE THEY CAUSE PAIN TO MY BELOVED NAMI! I'LL KILL THOSE PIRATES!" Zoro closed his eyes again, snoring. He purred silently as he did so, the rumbles spreading through his whole body and vibrating the grass touching him. He heard a hard punch, "W-WHAT WAS THAT FOR, SIS?!" Sanji whimpered, Zoro peaking to see that the blonde was cradling his head, a large and visible bump on the top of his cranium.

"That's exactly what I've come to tell you _not_ to do! Because of you going around calling Nami your friend and causing trouble, those pirates are starting to doubt her, putting her eight years of hard work in jeopardy." She lowered her gaze to the floor again, "So please… don't make her suffer anymore!"

Zoro's purring hitched in his throat. He really doubted Luffy would stop either way.

●ω●

The jaguar strolled into the village, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie. As he neared the center, he felt confusion and curiosity grow into him when he noticed a large group of people dressed in white walk past him. He stared on in shock as he noticed the man leading the marines had a spinning pinwheel on top of his police cap. "Why does that man have a pinwheel on his head?" he asked himself in shocked excitement.

He stopped gaping at the man though when he realized that a rat-like marine laughed, his chuckle sounding all too similar to the squeaks of a mouse. "A rat?" he said to himself, his eyes glaring at the mouse man when the red-wearing officer conversed with him, an untrustworthy smell emitting off the man. The marines walked in through between a pair of houses, taking a shortcut to their destination.

After staring for a while, he sat down against a palm tree, watching the marines and the pinwheel man pass the trees and into another house. A few minutes passed and his nose was infiltrated with a powerful stench of ash and charcoal, jolting him awake with a powerful flinch and a quiet shout of surprise, getting a few weird looks from passing villagers. He located the smell and his eyes constricted, his body immediately forcing him to stand up and follow the same trail the marines had taken—right in between the pair of houses and through the thin shrubbery of trees and bushes. It was easy to follow, since the trail was almost literally marked for him. It smelled exactly like _rat_.

As he reached the end of the trail, his sense of smell was practically useless now, the only odor he had been smelling being ash, fire, charcoal and _gunpowder_. Luffy cursed. Those marines had brought weapons with them, hadn't they? The weapons safes had been turned off simultaneously, then, since the smell of steel and gunpowder had shot up in an instant. He charged forward, watching as the rat man turned around, walking away and saying one last thing before the lower marines took out their guns, pointing it at Nami, Nojiko and the pinwheel man.

He forced his legs to take him to his destination faster. Whatever what was happening or what had already happened was reaching extreme limits—limits he could stop if he made it in time. He lunged forward as the each of the guns unloaded one lethal bullet, the neko growling as he reached out his hand in an attempt to let some bullets shoot through his arm, but he grinned when he realized that he would indeed make it in time either way. The jaguar shielded the three people with his body, each of the bullets finding a way onto his arms, legs and torso. He would need new clothes after this.

But not before beating up this group.

Each of the marines let out a surprised yelp, staggering back in shock, many sputtering out words and sentences along the lines of 'what the hell?'

The bullets were caught in Luffy's rubbery skin, bones and organs, embedding themselves with enough force to force the skin from his front to his back, pulling the skin back in an elongated bullet-shaped package. He crossed his arms in front of him, crouching a bit to contain the bullets inside him before springing back open, a wide yet almost wicked grin plastered on his face, "Take these back!" he said as the bullets sprung back to the marines with even more speed than before, hitting a few unlucky marines, injuring them and causing them to fall to the floor. The neko let his arms fall back to his sides, watching the soldiers fall on the ground, clutching their newly made wounds.

"YOU!" Nami seethed, the neko not turning towards her, "YOU'RE _STILL_ HERE?!"

Luffy cocked his head to the side a bit so he could see her with his peripheral vision. He could smell the anger emitted off of her, but he wasn't perturbed by it much at all, "Nami." He said softly, not really for her to listen to him, but in concern. Any other person would think the emotions he would be feeling would be pity or anger for her, but he would never pity any of his friends. Pity was for the weak, and Nami definitely wasn't weak, both in strength and in mentality. He didn't know her story, but he imagined that she must've had to go through a lot, which was a reason why he wouldn't be angry at her for wanting him to leave already.

He understood.

He was butting in into her life without her permission. Of course she would be angry.

"Yeah. I'm still here."

 **Okay guys, when this is published, I would already have two other chapters ready to be published, but I kinda just wanna make you suffer some, you know? Cause I'm heartless? But don't worry, by the time this chapter is published, you won't have to wait long to read the next ones.**

 **Anyway, I was kinda wondering. How are those psychotic clowns doing? Since, well, you know, it's pretty scary and stuff… and because I'm in South America… anyway, have any of you guys seen one? If so, I'm really curious to hear what happened, because seriously, it has peaked my attention like never before.**

 **Anyway, sorry for the long wait.**

 **Feel free to curse at me.**

 **(One) Piece out!**


	9. Chapter 9: Frozen Takoyaki?

**Hope you enjoyed last chapter! It took me a while to write it, I don't know why, but know that I'm actually working at a table instead of my bed, I think I can get this chapter done faster. But, that wouldn't really matter for you guys, right? Since it would technically already be done…**

 **Oh, and I want to mention, I guess I have to go back to basically every single one of my chapters and change the color of fear, 'cause I find happiness/joy to be more fitting for yellow and fear should be green or something, right? So, I'm gonna go back and redo that, so it'd be great if you guys can point out spots that I missed. Thanks.**

 **Onto the story!**

"LEAVE THIS ISLAND, ALREADY! I'VE TOLD YOU SO MANY TIMES, JUST LEAVE!" she screamed at him. For a second, Luffy felt bad since the anger from before seemed to have grown more than the former events, and he supposed that he was the only one to blame, but if he hadn't butted in, it was very likely that her sister was going to be shot, since she had lunged in front of Nami and shielded her like armor, but that was completely ignored since Luffy was the only thing on Nami's mind.

Luffy looked back at the wounded marines, the rest of the soldiers murmuring to themselves on how they should 'eliminate the nuisance'. The captain of the marines turned back, surprised to see many of his soldiers sprawled on the ground, some bleeding more than others and others almost none-moving. "What?!" the captain squeaked, causing Luffy to look at the rat-like marine captain.

The neko took a step closer to the marines, addressing to Nami, "These guys bothering you?" he asked her, his voice surprisingly very low. Nami halted her angered trembling and bit her lip, looking down on the ground as the anger returned again, but this time not towards the jaguar. Although she didn't gesture any sort of response, Luffy understood completely, having smelled the complete rage she was building up for a specific person, whether that be Arlong or the marine captain, he was going to beat them both.

Nami sprung up to her feet and sped away from the group of people, taking a different path that was painted with the smell of fish and sea life. Luffy frowned, turning to glare at the captain with a hard stare that could smash rocks.

Luffy walked closer to the rat man who smirked, "What do you plan to do, kid? Don't you know that hitting a marine will immediately get you arrested?"

Luffy curled his fingers into a fist, squeezing and releasing his clutched hand, "That doesn't matter to me." The marine captain stared at him dumbfounded, his sneer turning into an expression full of fear and confusion.

"What…?"

Luffy raised his fist and charged at the marine captain, "I was ready to punch a marine ever since I became a pirate!" he yelled at him mid-air, lunging near the rat man who squealed in fear, demanding his men to shoot the pirate, but couldn't even manage to sputter his third word, "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" the jaguar yelled, punching the man hard on the nose, forcing the man back many feet away and onto the floor with a bloody nose. The marines cursed at him, figuring guns wouldn't work and exchanged their firearms for their blades, each one letting out a battle cry.

Luffy glared at them hard, "I don't know what you guys were doing, but Nami obviously didn't like whatever it was…" he said, bringing his leg back, preparing for another attack, "That much is enough for a beat down!" he positioned his leg, "Gomu Gomu no Whip!" he knocked down all the remaining marines in a single swoop, bringing the white-clad men down easily.

He looked at his work, watching as the conscious men passed out from pain or blood loss and the rat captain with a red punch imprint on his face. He turned around, facing Nojiko and the pinwheel man, who stared at his work in amazement.

The pinwheel man spoke, "H-How did you bring them all down?! Your body just stretched!"

"I'm strong." Luffy said and smiled, "And I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi. I'm a rubber man." He said as he stretched the right side of his mouth as far as his arm went, before releasing it and letting his cheek slap back onto his face properly.

"What…?" Nojiko whispered, beads of sweat rolling down the side of her face. "A devil fruit?" Luffy nodded, smiling. Luffy looked to where Nami had run off, and Nojiko seemed to have understood what he was thinking. She walked over to him and bonked him on the head, "Devil fruit or not, you already heard her. And that goes for all of us. We don't want you here, so it'd be best if you just left with the rest of your friends."

Luffy stared blankly at her, having decided that Nami's history was finally catching up to her and she was unable to handle it. He could smell it when Nami wasn't feeling a specific emotion too strongly, that small tinge of hope that it _was_ going to get better. But if you don't work for achieving something, then it was never going to be achieved. He understood that Nami was working hard, but was she working hard enough? Did she really have the strength to beat down her enemies whenever she wanted too? He doubted it. She _was_ strong. He knew that and he accepted it, but she wasn't strong enough to stand back up once she fell.

So, he decided to wait.

Wait until she fell.

Once she fell, it would be decided.

If she was strong, she would get back up with a hard look, ready to climb the ladder again, but if she wasn't…

Then he and everyone else were going to lend their strength to her. She was special to them, and they weren't going to let her down when she needed them the most. Although she hurt, although she lied, although she wanted them to leave and abandon her, they were going to stand next to her and face her obstacles with the stony faces she needed to wear. They would be the strength she needed when her strength diminished climbing that ladder.

Luffy didn't reply, only giving her an emotionless stare that didn't express what he was thinking. The neko turned around, walking back to the place where he was before and once there, he noticed many villagers huddled near the pathway in between the two houses, all of them giving him weird looks when he passed by them, settling himself on a square wooden seat encasing a palm tree, crossing his legs and placing his hands behind his head for a makeshift pillow.

He was going to wait.

●ω●

Luffy's ears perked high from underneath his hat, suddenly hearing a ruckus that started not too long ago, each passing minute the sounds of yells and cheers would grow in sound, and when they quieted down, he could hear someone speaking to them, as if the lone voice was protesting and everyone was agreeing. He sat up and rested his feet on the ground, suddenly interested in the smell that expressed so many emotions: anger, fear, sadness, hope, confidence… a sign that the group he was getting closer to was preparing for something. Something big.

As he neared, he sat himself a few blocks away from the small crowd of people that were there, each person having a say in what they were discussing about.

"Any objections?!" the man with the pinwheel on his head asked the group of people. Luffy wondered when he had gotten there.

"Of course not! Now let's go!"

"As if we'd accept their rule now that things have come to this!"

"Everyone in the whole village has always been prepared to fight!"

"So let's do this!"

Luffy soon understood what they were getting at and what they were planning on doing, but he made no move to stop them. He wondered though, if they really could try to take him on. Sure, he didn't know how strong Arlong was, but he was a pirate, and most pirates in general could easily beat a civilian no matter the type of weapons they carried—unless of course it was a weaponless pirate pansy that depended on his weaponry to fight (much like someone he recently beat) that was against a person with a common weapon, like a pistol, then perhaps the innocent person had a chance.

But, for them to _finally_ start a fight now for who knows how long, then the chance that Arlong was weak was very slim. Over the loud noises of cheering and yelling, he hadn't noticed quick-paced footsteps quickly closing in on the crowd, much less recognize them.

But once he caught sight of short, ginger hair, he knew that she had something to say.

"Wait, everyone!" she caught everyone's attention. Luffy hadn't noticed before, but Nojiko was also among the group; only seeing her when he heard her say Nami's name in a very surprised tone. The ginger girl's heels stopped their clacking and she opened her arms wide, wearing a surprisingly sincere smile and cheerful eyes, a small faint blush dusting her cheeks as if she was actually tickled pink. But, no smell was stronger than fear and anger. It surprised him that he could actually smell something sweet around her, but the smell of ash and onion completely overpowered it, "Please just wait a little more! I'll try my best again so please!" she chuckled nervously and immediately, Luffy understood where she was getting at. He growled, "I promise I'll raise enough money once more! It'll actually be easier this time!" he could make out the very thin layer of sweat her body bore, and knew that it wasn't because of the run she had.

The villagers' looks softened, some even looked a tad guilty, as if they were little kids who were caught sticking their hands in _a pit of snakes_. After a few, agonizingly slow seconds, he could feel the exchange in smells, suddenly the atmosphere turned damp and mucky, and although no one else could smell it, they were probably feeling it. So much dampness that it seemed to turn the ground into mud that stuck onto your shoes and slipped off when you took another step, only for more to stick on.

Something that stuck on, but left, only to return again.

It seemed like it happened to them once before, and it was currently happening to them right now.

The pinwheel man lunged forward, bringing Nami into a tight embrace that she was definitely not expecting, her confusion turning into sadness when he started to speak, "That's enough… you know that doing such a thing would be futile. You've carried all our hope alone for long enough… you've fought splendidly…! I know that working with them must've been more painful than a thousand searing knives." Luffy frowned, hearing Nami's pain like a poem really seemed to have gotten to him. "You've fought well." Everyone smiled at his next words, "You can now leave this village."

Nami flinched and pushed herself away from the man littered with multiple scars, "What?!" her eyes were watery, tears haven't yet fallen, "B—"

Nojiko interrupted, "Nami…" she smiled, walking up to her younger sibling and with the brightest smile she could muster, she told her, "You're cunning and you've got what it takes to survive out there! Besides, you've got a dream to fulfill!" Luffy's ears perked at this, and almost a few seconds later, he smelled a very pacifying smell that he could only identify as his friends, the tiger smell overpowering his sense of smell above every other emotion. Zoro must've smelled the pother of emotions in front of Luffy, since they were nearing surprisingly quickly.

"Nojiko!" Nami said in shock. She shook her head and wailed, "No! please stop, everyone!" she took out a dagger and pointed it in front of her offensively and defensively, "I don't want to see them hurt anyone of you again!" she was panting. Her fear was taking its toll on her body, exhausting her, "You'll die, you know!"

Gen frowned, his chin wrinkled, "We know." He brought his hand forward and clutched the blade, the palm of his hand and his fingers easily cut, blood oozing through and dripping onto the dirty pavement.

A man wearing a black bandana with a white cross and a white coat stepped in, "It's no use. Our hearts are set!" he said to her with a determined voice, the villagers behind him either smiling in compassion or grinning in determination. By now, Luffy could smell Zoro, Usopp and Sanji perfectly, the three having split up to hide behind different objects, such as houses and trees to watch the scene before them unfold like a blooming flower, along with various colorful and resolute emotions. Some bright yet raw yellow, a few tints of orange from the red mixing with the former, very small tints of a sick and ugly green, proving that the villagers were indeed afraid, but cared for Nami more. There were even some sad and dull blues. The nekos felt bad, having too say that such a beautiful display carried such a heavy weight. The colors flowed around each person like a dusty cloud as the people smiled, unaware of the spectacle they had created.

Nojiko's eyes watered, "Nami…" she hid her eyes by lowering her gaze.

All of a sudden, the mist around the pinwheel man because a dark, bloody red, radiating a smoky and ashy smell, "NOW MOVE OUT OF OUR WAY, NAMI!" he charged, the clouds around everyone turning into a sick green and red, the demonstration from before completely obliterated by anger and fear. Everyone followed suit, raising their spears, daggers and swords in the air, prepared for a bloody bath, "LET'S GO EVERYONE! EVEN IF WE MAY NOT WIN, LET'S SHOW THEM OUR SPIRIT!"

They trampled past Nami yelling out their battle cries, and once everyone had passed her and were too far for even the nekos to specifically make them out, they watched Nami, unknowing of what was going to happen. Her sadness changing to anger in no time at all. Everyone could see her tremble, her right hand latching onto her left shoulder—where the forsaken Arlong tattoo laid imprinted on her skin. Her fingers dug into her sketched skin, as if she wanted to claw out the tattoo with her nails. Everyone flinched when they heard her seethe out the name that tortured so many minds.

" _Arlong!"_ she drawled out the name, hissing as if it hurt to just say it. The red mist around her seemed to drip, as if the 'clouds' really were like rainclouds containing water, but instead of the clear and healthy liquid, it seemed to seep the red essentiality for the body, agonizingly slowly. It didn't drip, it just seemed to spring down then split into small dot-like orbs dancing underneath the blood red mist. Each passing second, it seemed to just grow darker and darker, up until the point where the red fumes were almost black. Once it had reached that shade of red, she screamed out Arlong's name again with much more ferocity, "ARLONG!" she grabbed her dagger off the floor and immediately after saying it, she plunged it into her arm, exactly where the black tattoo of a sawfish laid imprinted in her skin, "ARLONG, _ARLONG!"_ she stabbed repeatedly, and as she was going to do it again, Luffy grabbed her arm, preventing her from causing more damage to her body.

Her arm was bleeding profusely, but the mist around her was still darker than the liquid escaping her shoulder. The neko held her hand high using enough force to keep it that way. The red clouds that consumed the space around them stopped dripping and piecing apart, changing beautifully into a shy turquoise. Fear and sadness. It really punctured the neko's heart.

The ginger girl looked up, tears rolling down to her chin as she bit her bottom lip, attempting to silence her whimpers as she trembled, still trying to get one more stab in her shoulder. "Luffy…" she said softly.

She released her grip on her dagger when Luffy let go of her wrist, letting her arms support her on the ground, her legs bent to both of her sides, "WHAT IS IT?! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT ANYTHING!" she yelled at him, the neko noticing that it was the most frequent tone she had been using only for him.

Luffy let his hands clutch into fists, "Nope, I don't know anything." He said in a flat tone, but the air around him was full of emotion.

Nami, with her good hand, grabbed a fistful of the sandy dirt the pavement was made of, her nails filled with the soil, "This has nothing to do with you…!" she rasped out, her voice close to hissing. She swung her arm back, the sand in her hands vanishing into small clouds of dust around Luffy. Small packs of stones hit his legs, but he ignored them, "DIDN'T I ALREADY TELL YOU TO LEAVE THIS ISLAND?!"

"Yeah, you did." Red mixed in with the turquoise.

Once she stopped throwing sand on him, she covered her face with her dirty hand, her tears taking the dirt off her hand as they dropped onto the floor. The ground on her right side had a small hole, with smaller and thinner ones running inside it. If someone were to pass by, they would know that the hole was made with a thin hand.

" _Luffy…_ " her voice started to shake, and the red immediately vanished, leaving behind a very vibrant sea color, not pure blue, not pure green, but somewhere in between. The blood from her arm seeped down onto the ground, a few red dots painting the sandy soil. She turned to him, biting her lip as she looked up at him with tear filled eyes, filled with so much pain that one could write a small story book only detailing the emotion in them, the lost hope, the pain, the sadness, and one last plead, " _Help me…"_

Luffy knew now was the time.

She fell off her ladder, and he knew she couldn't get back up. She attempted to create an excuse when she tried to convince the villagers that she could get back up again, but they knew she couldn't. The strength in her arms had vanished, and she couldn't get back up, not mattering even if she tried, she would just fall down again.

Right now, she needed the strength of someone else, someone along with few others, but with the strength they were willing to give her, she could get back up the ladder she had fallen from.

Luffy wore a frown, lifting his hand and placing it on top of his hat, massaging it before grabbing it and placing the straw hat on Nami's ginger hair, rather bluntly but firmly, revealing his black jaguar ears. The exposed neko took a few steps away from Nami, turned around and took in a deep breath facing the sky. With enough air in his lungs, he released it in one loud yell, **"OF COURSE I WILL!"**

She whispered his name as he walked away, with good reason as well. Not only had they agreed to help her, despite all her trickery, Luffy had given her his precious hat, something he'd never do. the three other members already prepared to be her strength. "Let's go."

Zoro smirked, unsheathing Wado Ichimonji and immediately sniffing the blade, the scent of steel very powerful, yet he left himself completely exposed, not being bothered by his flaunting. If Luffy was showing his identity, his pride as another fellow neko and _friend_ drove him to do the same. He was only awaiting the moment when he would have to take out his other two swords. Usopp snapped on his goggles, running his hands on the ammunition inside his orange ammunition bag, appearing confident despite his cowardly nature. Sanji blew out the smoke from his cigarette, clicking his tongue. He tapped the floor with his toes, getting a better feel in his feet and legs. Better feel; better kick.

"Roger!"

They've been preparing for this moment.

●ω●

Walking past the villagers near the gates to the entrance of Arlong Park wasn't much of a problem, but Luffy and Zoro had been the center of attention in the whole crowd of people, since their cat extremities were on display for everyone to see. Yosaku and Johnny were perplexed at first, wondering why Luffy didn't have his hat and why Zoro was showing his special features as well, but after seeing Nami wearing Luffy's hat far (almost ambiguous to be exact, as only her shadow was visible in the town faraway, but her short, tangerine hair and the straw hat on her head seemed to give it away) behind them, they got the answer to their first question, but were still left wondering about the second.

Zoro, on the other hand, knew perfectly why he would show himself to everyone after many years of hiding. He had a captain to follow and protect, whether he liked it or not. If his captain decided that he would let everyone see him, then it would be shameful for him not to do the same, since not only was he the first crewmember, thus knowing him the longest in their short period of time together, but because he wouldn't let Luffy suffer alone. If his captain was shunned upon or wanted, then he would be to. And besides, friends stuck by each other's sides, didn't they? Although, he would never say that out loud. It almost surprised him how well he got along with the other neko, taking into account the way Luffy had black-mailed him to join, but he was greeted with a new sense of adventure he doubted he would've received had he not joined. Besides, Luffy wasn't a bad man to follow.

Luffy, after everyone had left a path for them towards the red gates to Arlong Park, raised his fist and punched the doors, blowing them off their hinges and crumbling completely many yards away. He clenched his fingers, wringing them inwards and outwards, "Who's the one called Arlong?"

The fishman in the wooden lawn chair growled immediately, baring his sharp teeth and glared and the neko, anger so evident that even though Luffy's cat ears and tail were exposed, the fishman named 'Arlong' didn't even seem to notice. "Who's this brat…?" his voice dripped in anger, enraged by the simple action, yet after composing himself and pursuing a more dominant voice, he said, "Arlong? That would be _my_ name."

"I'm Luffy." The neko told him nonchalantly.

Luffy stared blankly at the fishman, wondering if the hybrid had even noticed his ears and tail. Judging from his unchanging expression, it seemed he didn't, "Luffy?" he said it slowly, as if finally observing his features. Luffy confirmed his suspicions when the fishman growled, baring his sharp teeth, "I see…" he pointed out the different oddities, something nobody should have, "And just what the hell are _you_?"

Luffy let his gaze harden into a small glare, "A pirate." He said.

The fishman glowered at him, yet not intimidating enough. Don Krieg was one thing, since a man such as him was incomprehensible in Luffy's mind ('How could he just hurt his own crewmate?!' It was beyond his understanding.) but a fish was in no means stronger than a cat, and he doubted the fishman being a sawfish would make much of a difference, since he himself was no mere cat, but a jaguar.

"And that on your head?" he asked, impatience audible in his voice.

"Ears."

The fishman was clearly not pleased with the answer, but refrained himself from asking more. It was probably just a weird hat and it was never in his blood to ever actually ask too many time-wasting questions unless it was one-hundred percent necessary.

The neko whipped his tail back and forth, casually strolling in through and over the debris of the fallen doors, the fishmen pirates staring at the appendage almost warily, as if they were unsure of what they were staring at. A pair of larger fishmen than himself stepped in front of him, wearing grins that obviously meant trouble. The neko stopped in front of them, the one to his right setting a webbed hand on his shoulder. The gesture was strange physically, as the fishman's hand was slippery but not wet, and very stretchy, but unlike his rubber. Plastic was the best the neko could describe the feeling, "Hey you, stop." He said, his voice low but normal, as if it belonged to any other normal person.

The one to his left laughed, "Where d'ya think you're going?" he interrogated the neko, but it was obvious he was simply stalling, and Luffy had no time to stall, "We can't have you go through without talkin' to us first." The fishmen around them chuckled, one calling over the rest closer to the front so they could see the bloody and amusing death of the strange cat-like man.

They said at once, "If you don't hold it right there…" Luffy clicked his barbed tongue, the feeling well-known against the roof of his mouth.

He stretched his arms over their heads, confusing them for a moment. Of course, it probably seemed like a friendly gesture similar to a pat on the back, but Luffy left the palms of his hands occupy the curving part of their heads, and before they could react, he glared at them hard and slammed their heads together in the middle, a sickening thud resonating throughout the park. "MOVE IT!" he growled. The enemy was right in front of him, and he wasn't going to be stalled any longer.

The two fishmen fell to the floor as Luffy was over them, studying the reaction of the large sawfish man, which was amusing to him. The fishman probably thought he was going to be easy meat. The others around them shouted out their surprise, obviously not having expected the quick defeat of two of their _superior_ members (in comparison to humans).

Arlong glared at him, but kept his head facing the front, having to depend solely on his eyes to watch the neko. Luffy thought silently to himself, _They obviously have no idea what a neko is,_ And with good reason too, the pirate pair from before had easily underestimated them, and they ended up on the ground with killer headaches and bloody foreheads.

"What does a pirate want with me?" Arlong asked. Luffy could see the red, cloudy cloak around him, but it definitely couldn't match with how Nami's was earlier.

As Luffy was only a few good feet away from the fishman, he bent his arm back and quickly lunged his arm forward, punching the pirate on the cheek and sending him crashing on the white walls on the other side of the wide enclosed area, tumbling the lawn chair on the ground from the force. The walls were easily broken, large chunks sprawling on the ground as dust blinded the spot where Arlong was thrown. Luffy brought his fist back, his fingers popping as they flexed independently.

There was a brief moment of shocked silence, but each of the members from the fishmen pirates immediately cried out to their captain, chorusing his name in dismayed worry. Luffy blew out a very large amount of air from his nose, as if he were a raging bull ready to charge at the red flag. _Red_. A sign of violence. That meant Arlong was the red flag. The concept of colors was easy for any neko. A brief image of Nami appeared in his mind, her eyes clouded as if a misty film had been placed over them, tears running down them as she looked up timidly at him, as if she was finally accepting her fate in a timid manner. The words that left her mouth, _'Help me'_ was like carrying the heaviest thing on his back and shoulders, _heavy_ , but if he were to drop it, it would be harder to pick up again, rather than to carry it.

"Just what the _hell_ …" Arlong started, his voice was trembling not from fear or pain, as Luffy could determine from the lack of green and onions, but of anger. He interrupted the fishman with his own angry protest.

"Don't you _**dare**_ **,** make my navigator cry!" he scowled, his eyes almost gone from the lack of color in them, his pupil practically thin slits. He found himself a bit heated up, but it didn't deter him at all. He simply wanted this fishman out of Nami's life. The source of her misery and hopelessness was right in front of him, and he was going to get rid of it for her.

Immediately, despite their previous shock, the pirates charged at Luffy, some baring weapons such as swords, while others charged with their webbed fingers outstretched, as if they were going to claw at him. If one thing Luffy knew for certain, it was that cat claws were far more lethal than the 'claws' a fish would possess. They yelled out their battle cries, but somewhere far behind in their mix of yells, the neko could hear the quickening footsteps of his new crewmember, halting only a few feet away from him. Luffy didn't even blink when all the fishmen were immediately knocked down with swift leg movements. "Small fries can just get the hell back!"

Once they were all knocked down, Sanji strolled next to him, his kicks applying so much force that clouds of smoke were encircling the fallen victims and on some empty parts of the ground. "Jeez… running head first alone like that." They had witnessed Luffy's punch to the door, they were there with him when they walked through the crowd of armed villagers, but as soon as that door had been knocked down, Luffy simply walked in without them, not giving them any signs that he was going alone. When he had tried to follow him into the park, the tiger neko stopped him. So of course, they had watched the whole event, only interrupting when they realized that all the fishmen were running towards Sanji's new captain. He was newly recruited, so he found it only made sense that he showed he could be powerful.

Luffy clutched his fists, staring with an angry expression at the debris that laid on top of the fallen enemy, dust still clouding everything, providing them with no clue if the enemy was down or not, except for the nekos, "Don't worry, I ain't gonna lose." He said confidently.

Sanji clicked his tongue, the smoke from his cigarette blowing out unintentionally, "Dumbass! When did I ever say I was worried for you?" he asked roughly. In truth, he really wasn't worried. That was probably due to the fact that that he had watched the neko singlehandedly beat up one of East Blue's most retched enemies, once considered to be the ocean's worst threat but was now probably humiliated with himself if he had already woken up. He wondered if Gin was okay. If the neko could beat up a man with hundreds of weapons, then he should be able to beat a fish, right? "I only meant you shouldn't hog all the glory for yourself."

"Oh." Luffy said calmly, but still wore an angered look that Sanji was glad wasn't directed at him, or else he would be at the receiving end of his captain's monstrous punches. The neko cracked his knuckles.

Zoro walked up next to Luffy, Usopp tailing him a tad behind. The tip of the tiger's tail moved a bit, without a sign of hesitation. Usopp responded to Sanji in his own preference, "I d-don't particularly mind either w-w-way, Luffy."

Zoro cocked his head to stare at Usopp with confused amusement, "Aren't you gutsy?" he asked him, but of course he got no response.

There were a few fishmen who hadn't charged, one who appeared to be a manta ray due to the large fin-like extensions that extended from his elbows. His skin with a very light blue tinted gray, though he did have the appearance of a martial artist because of his clothes, wearing a dark blue gi with a black belt. "Roronoa Zoro…!" he scowled when he saw the neko, sharing a very small but confused glance to the other two next to him when he spotted the white, black-striped tail and cat-like ears like the captain. He compared the two and deemed them the same, although different colors completely.

The octopus with the strange, white hair pointed at the tiger, Zoro immediately recognizing him since it hadn't been very long since he had last seen him, "That's him! The one who tricked me!" the octopus bared his teeth, "How dare he take me for a ride… no, wait. I was the one who actually gave _him_ a ride…!" he didn't seem to know what he was saying, the people listening concluded.

The one behind them, with strangely thick, red lips and dull yellow hair—unlike Sanji's more vibrant yellow—didn't say anything, but it was evident with the look on his face that he was far from pleased.

The other pirates who had gotten up noticed something impossible as well, "That long-nosed human is still alive!"

"He should've already been dead!"

The nekos perked their ears when they heard crumbling coming from Arlong's direction, confirming that he still hadn't fallen. The other two, realizing that the nekos were staring intensely at the fallen rubble, they looked as well, knowing that the fight was still not over. After a few seconds of small rocks cracking as they fell against the floor, the voice belonging to the punched enemy spoke, "Pirates, huh…" his voice was on the verge of growling, but the nekos still took it as a free invitation to start a fight, "I see… so that's how you're all related."

From behind them, they could hear the villagers speak among themselves, but Johnny and Yosaku still blocked them, "Hey! Just who are those guys?! To be able to send Arlong's gigantic body flying with a punch…! That's not something a normal person could do!" a villager asked, but shock was extremely evident in his expression and voice.

The small group of four pirates turned around, losing interest in the conversation behind them, though Usopp still seemed a bit reluctant to be standing _inside_ the park rather than outside, where the rest of the blocked villagers stood.

Arlong, still listening in on the conversation between the villagers and Johnny and Yosaku, started to laugh after hearing their reasoning, "So your goal from the very beginning was only to get Nami, is that it…?" he cackled louder, "Just what could four measly _humans_ do?!"

The octopus growled as well, the nekos staring at him with intense glares, "You idiots! As if Arlong would fight the likes of you! I'll turn you all into fish food!" he clutched the middle of his elongated mouth, baring his teeth in a sort of whistle, before blowing out a large quantity of air, imitating the same trumpet sound Zoro had heard before. The tiger raised his eyebrows, now understanding where the previous sound had come from, "Come out, beast!" he yelled.

The nekos perked their ears when they heard deep in the depths of the ocean a growing rumbling noise, as if something were swimming quickly towards them. The villagers outside all immediately grew scared; they knew what was going to happen, while the straw hat pirates stood on the white pavement, wondering what was coming towards them. The sound of water being pushed elevated, and soon the surface of the water broke into a growing mountain of water, the sea water pulled down by gravity.

"Come out, Mohmoo!" the octopus fishman yelled, raising his arms as if he were the one elevating the water like a waterfall.

Luffy and Sanji were surprised, but for a completely different reason. They both thought the same thing. 'Mohmoo' was the cow sea king that they fed and happily took them to the island, although it did crash into the rocky coast, but that was probably because it was going at incredible speeds that not even itself could stop.

The 'beast' surfaced, the water running down its head, broken ropes still tied to its horns that Luffy and Sanji immediately recognized. It appeared to be fine, judging from its peaceful demeanor, but it sported a large bruise on its forehead along with a few others, which was most likely caused by the crash. It mooed softly, asking what it was needed for. Luffy looked at Sanji, who seemed to be mildly pissed, probably because it had crashed into the island and sent them flying. He couldn't help but smile at that event and at Sanji's reaction. The chef noticed his new captain giggling at him and couldn't help but feel a tad more annoyed, "What? That hippo sent us crashing over the damn island!" he hissed at him in a low whisper.

Luffy ignored the annoyed protest and looked over to Mohmoo, "Wonder if he's still hungry." Sanji felt like smacking him, but not like it would even affect the kid when he was made of rubber _and_ completely oblivious to his friend's punches and smacks.

Usopp screamed, "IT'S THE MONSTER!"

The octopus man looked at the large bruise on the beast's head, most likely wondering what had happened and how the monster had gotten it.

Mohmoo took notice of the jaguar and mooed happily, slapping its fins against the water in a joyous gesture to invite both he and Sanji in the water, which Luffy would've happily complied if it weren't for the current conjuncture they were all in (and because he had a devil fruit, but he still would've jumped in, either way). "Hey Mohmoo!" Luffy shouted, waving his hand at the beast, "We can't swim, sorry Mohmoo…! Maybe some other time!" he shouted, the beast appearing to be a bit saddened that his invitation was denied.

Everyone was shocked, to say the least. Zoro, who usually had an idea of what his captain had been up to, was among the group of flustered people (and fishmen). _They probably met somewhere and Luffy just made it his friend_ , was his simple conclusion, and it seemed to fit the situation like a puzzle piece.

"It wanted us to swim with it?" Sanji asked, Luffy replying with a cheerful 'yep'. "You do realize you can't swim, right?"

Luffy stared at Sanji and widened his eyes, as if barely realizing he indeed couldn't, "You're right! I can't!" he replied cheerfully, placing his hands on his hips in an almost prideful manner, which Sanji couldn't get. The cook guessed he was just going to have get used to his captain's strange emotions and logic.

Luffy was about to continue when Arlong growled like a feral dog at the beast, scaring it, "Mohmoo… the hell do you think you're doing…"

Mohmoo's eyes seemed to go blank, his demeanor completely still. The water around him acted as if he wasn't even there in the first place. Despite being in water, the cow sea king was sweating bullets, and when Arlong continued to speak, it began to tremble, "If you want to _play_ with them, I ain't gonna try to stop you, but…" he glared at the beast, his cold glare almost freezing the sea king in place, its pupils almost gone from how pale they had gotten, "Well, Mohmoo…?" he said, abandoning the 'but' in his previous statement.

The cow continued to stare into Arlong's eyes, pure terror was evident in the poor creature. Luffy cursed at the fishman, scaring his friend like that, but before he could charge at the sawfish man, he heard a loud roar come from Mohmoo's direction. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Mohmoo baring its sharp teeth at his crew, splashing the water violently, screeching out a powerful howl that got the nekos covering their ears. Usopp screamed in terror, but his didn't even come close to the sea king's roar.

Zoro, having seen the earlier and happy expression and tone the beast wore, knew that the monster in front of them wasn't an enemy, but an ally. Despite knowing this information, his hand pulled out Wado from its sheath a bit, the light shining off the katana's blade.

The fishmen roared out as well, "Alright! Follow Mohmoo's lead! Let's show these inferior humans not to mess with us!" Zoro unsheathed Wado a bit more, staring at the charging crowd with almost to none enthusiasm. Sanji on the other hand, seemed to be pleased to be able to kick some more, while Usopp took out his slingshot at rapid speeds, fearful yet courageous at the same times. Usopp was weird.

Luffy jumped in front of them though, slamming his fists together and blowing out smoke through his nose, his tail waving from side to side, showing he was more than annoyed now, "Leave it to me!" he told them, surprising and halting them of their movements, "They're just a bunch of time-wasters!" he glanced at Sanji, "Sanji!" the cook looked at him, "Convince Mohmoo!" the blonde clicked his tongue, looking at the large beast in front of them, baring its teeth and lunging towards them.

"Troublesome captain. It would be easier to just beat it…" he muttered to himself before he charged at Mohmoo, jumping high in front of the beast, "Whatever. Don't think I'm gonna sugarcoat my kicks, idiot captain!"

Luffy nodded, his tail flicking in recognition, then charged towards the stampede of fishmen, positioning himself in a way where he could get a good attack in, "Gomu Gomu no Whip!" he stomped the floor, halting his running and bringing his leg back a good distance away to his side before slamming it against the crowd, bringing the majority down. Those who had fallen were left unconscious by the powerful kick, but a few had been left standing. He would have to take those down with something other than a kick, so he charged at each individual, aiming to give each one of them a punch, which was made easier since they fishmen encircled him, attempting to get a good scratch on him.

Sanji, on the other hand, had no idea how to calm down the beast. He jumped high enough to get in the cow's face, which grew noticeably softer when it noticed Sanji, "Hey, cow," he started, he honestly didn't know what his captain wanted him to do. Sure, he had been there when they fed him and when it took them across the sea to the island, but he wasn't the one who spoke to it, "Luffy ain't gonna fight you, so just give it up already!" he told it, hoping with his life that he said the right thing.

Mohmoo glanced at Arlong, who although wasn't staring at him, still frightened him to an extent. The cow roared again, about to ram its head into Sanji. The cook cursed, but a blur of white and green rushed past him and landed on Mohmoo's forehead. Zoro held Wado in his hand but it remained sheathed, and with his katana, he bonked the cow's bruise roughly, causing it to mewl in pain. He pushed the cow back a bit as he and Sanji landed on the floor, "Dumb cow, just get out of here already! Luffy considers you worthy to be his friend but if you're just going to bother him, then get out of our view!"

The cow looked hurt, a small tear running down from one of its eyes. It even seemed to sniffle, _"But… Arlong…"_

Zoro clicked his tongue, "He said you could leave, didn't he?!" Mohmoo looked at Arlong, then to Zoro and Sanji, then finally stared at Luffy, who was done punching the last fishman. Seeing the display of strength the neko possessed, it encouraged the sea cow a bit. The sea king hesitated as it looked at the wide ocean behind it, especially when it took a quick peek at Arlong, who was now glaring at him. Mohmoo trembled, but he was now taking into consideration the options it had: hurt its friends and obey a man it didn't want to follow or escape.

The cow nodded and quickly dove back in the ocean, its white and dark green pelt disappearing under the deep blue waters. Zoro glanced at Sanji, who seemed annoyed yet pleased by the outcome. When the chef caught him looking at him, he told the tiger, "I could've handled that."

The neko gritted his teeth, "Didn't seem like it to me. It actually seemed like you were about to get head-butted by a cow." He said back to the blonde. The cook bit his cigarette, aggravated.

Before they could continue though, Luffy's voice cut them off, but it wasn't directed at them nor their fight, "I didn't come here to fight these small fries!" he turned to Arlong, "The one I want to beat up _is you_!" he pointed at the man, beads of sweat starting to form on his face.

Arlong smirked, baring his sharp teeth as his eyes expressed the violence he wanted to place upon the neko and his companions. With a raspy voice, Arlong said, " _How excellent. I was thinking of killing you myself just now as well._ " Luffy glared at him back. Back at the Baratie, he had witnessed the eyes and grin of a man he wanted gone, and now he had overcome those features. Violence expressed in the structure of a face and body didn't affect him now.

The manta ray, octopus and smelt-white appeared, the manta ray fishman looking definitely displeased, "Seems like we have no choice but to fight."

The octopus flexed his arms, his upper two pointing at himself in pride, "HOW DARE YOU HURT OUR BRETHREN!" he yelled.

The smelt-white fishman grinned, although it could've been his normal expression because of the large lips that were hard to read, "Looks like we need to teach these humans the difference between races. Chu ❤︎."

Luffy cocked his head. Races? That's how they compared themselves with people? Not that it really mattered to him, but if they were comparing themselves because of races, then nekos were far superior. He looked to Zoro, who wore a blank face.

Zoro had already heard their rant about races when he was a prisoner, and he thought differently. He had thought these fishmen had been over the water for a good ten years, but if they still hadn't heard of nekos, then they really needed to study more than just the seas. Knowing this, he smirked, his ears flattened to his sides and his tail stilled. Sanji noticed the change and immediately an image clicked into his mind, thinking that he really _did_ look like a hunting tiger. "Looks like the main force is out to meet us." Zoro massaged his lone sword, missing the feeling of two more on his waist.

The manta ray spoke up, his arms crossed, "If this was how things were going to turn out, we should have fought from the beginning." The manta ray cocked his head back a bit to signify to Arlong that he was talking to him, "Arlong, please just sit right there."

The smelt-white fishman turned to their captain as well, the octopus hunched over in a way that made it seem he was about to vomit, "If we let you fight while that much enraged, Chu ❤︎, all of Arlong Park will end up destroyed."

The crouching octopus suddenly trembled violently, then looked up, "Take this! Zero Field of Vision…"

Zoro's ears twitched, unsure of what was happening, "That octopus is doing something." He warned Luffy and Sanji next to him, since he had heard Usopp quickly back away from them before they faced the fishmen. Taking a peek back, he saw Usopp standing in a confident pose, his arms crossed and his head high. He sighed and looked back, wondering what was going to happen as Sanji calmly smoked from his cigarette, listing off a short recipe of an octopus dish. As Sanji finished naming off the last step and concluded the recipe with a wine combination, the nekos' ears laid back against their heads, causing the cook to look a bit flustered at their reaction.

"What's wrong?" the chef decided to ask the nekos, who always seemed to be a step ahead of everyone. He was starting to get annoyed at not being the same level of alertness like the other two. Though, he felt confident to say that he felt a tad superior than their sniper.

Luffy sniffed once, then twice, not sure if what he was smelling was correct, "Smells like ink." He said, then he looked to Zoro and Sanji for more details, "Where's the ink?"

Sanji immediately understood, "Idiot. Ink comes from octopi." The three looked in front of them, watching as the octopus fishman continued to tremble. They all seemed to have understood at that moment, watching as with wary eyes at their enemy.

"Then we have our answer." Zoro said, already prepared to jump out of the way.

The octopus fishman "Tako-Hachi Black!"

The three jumped out of the just in time, the ink splattering on the pavement like wet, black paint. Dots of it landed on each one, but it was easily removable but smeared uncontrollably. Luckily, the ink hadn't gotten on the nekos' tails. That would've been another story of complete discomfort.

Zoro immediately perked his ears, suddenly remembering the name that belonged to the octopus; 'Hacchan'. That was the name he told him, but it seemed as if Hachi was the type of nickname a friend would give you, and judging that the enemy was the one with the name, he wouldn't be using it.

The three glared at the octopus, who seemed also annoyed with the outcome. Sanji turned to Luffy then sighed, "Luffy, how is it possible you didn't know ink came from octopi?" he asked him, a bit annoyed that his captain didn't know such simple trivia. He picked out a new smoke and lit it, placing it between his lips, "Honestly, I just agreed to following a dumbass for a captain."

Zoro sighed as well, "My feelings exactly." Sure, he had been the longest member on Luffy's crew, but he had already lost count of how many times he questioned his decision of following Luffy.

Sanji smirked, "But it's still a thousand times better than being in a pirate crew that would harm a lady."

The manta ray man stood in the exact same position as well as the smelt-white man, "A pirate going around spouting chivalrous lines? How half-assed."

Sanji chuckled, "Would you like to test just how half-assed my chivalry really is, Mr. Fish? Despite what you may think, I've spent half my life as a pirate."

"It seems that you fools don't understand the level that we fishmen are on."

Sanji raised his visible eyebrow, blowing out smoke, thinking back when the wood and armor around Luffy seemed to just _burn_ and _melt_. He really needed to ask some questions later, but he really doubted that fishmen could do _that_ , or climb very well, or sense emotions _plus_ fight on the same level as the ones behind him, "I'd have to disagree." He said, "I may be human and 'below fishmen level', but technically those two behind me aren't completely man."

The fishman seemed curious now, "And why is that?" he asked slowly, his eyes dimming.

Sanji smirked, suddenly feeling a tinge of mocking, "Because they're more cat than human. You might've glossed over this, but don't cats enjoy a nice plating of fish?" he felt success when the manta ray stilled, his face showing growing anger.

Meanwhile, Hacchan had managed to dig out a loud chunk of broken debris from the ground next to him, probably from Luffy's rampage when he was fighting the minor fishmen. He held the large chunk of building above his head with his upper two arms and one of his mid-section, "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

Luffy was about to immediately escape, not fond of the idea of the large chunk of rock was going to be thrown at him. Granted, it probably wouldn't hurt, but there were some sharper ends that could definitely cut him if thrown correctly. Usopp immediately panicked, since he was still in the range of the throw, but the tiger tapped the fishman's back with the butt of his katana, somehow ending up behind the fishman, "Hey octopus, why don't you play with me instead?" he asked with a sharp grin, knowing that the fishman held some sort of dumb grudge because he had 'tricked' him.

"Nyu! Roronoa Zoro! That's right, I forgot!" the octopus slammed the large chunk of building he held above him to Zoro, the tiger barely managing to dodge, "How dare you deceive me before!" Zoro left his hand on Wado, prepared to unsheathe the blade at any given moment, "Not only that, you cut down my brethren!" Zoro smiled, remembering when Nami had released him and since he had no idea where to go, he decided to just kill time.

"I don't care about ancient history. It doesn't matter for what reason you want to kill me. The situation's different now." He unsheathed Wado, baring the left side of his teeth, revealing some that were indeed sharper than the average person's, "You guys aren't going to be doing the killing. It's _us_ that's going to do the killing."

Usopp swiped his head, apparently sweating from fear, "G-Good Zoro, I'll let you deal with that octopus." He shot a thumbs up at their swordsman, "Nice work." As he turned around, he noticed the smelt-white fishman staring at Luffy with a powerful gaze, and as soon as he noticed, the fishman charged towards them, running past Zoro and the octopus man and nearing Luffy. The neko took notice as well and was about to counter but Usopp instinctively took out his slingshot with an egg, shooting the 'bullet' but it landed on the floor, "D-Damnit! I missed!" his legs were shaking, and because of his trembles, his aim had been off, but what surprised both him and Luffy was that, despite having aimed incorrectly, was that the fishman stepped on the wet mess and slipped, landing hard on the floor.

The sniper was about to was about to cheer until he saw the sharp glare on the fishman who had slipped. Tears immediately fell from his eyes, terrified, "… My bad…" immediately, he ran the other way at an incredible speed, exiting Arlong park and creating a pathway from the villagers there, screaming in terror.

"LOOKS LIKE YOU REALLY _DO_ WANT TO BE KILLED BY ME!" the fishman shouted, chasing after the the fishman crossed the gate, he noticed the villagers there, each one holding a weapon. He stopped and grinned, "Oh, it's you hooligans from before. You were still here? Chu ❤︎. Oh, it looks like all the Cocoyashi villagers are here, too. Seeing as how you're all carrying weapons, I take it that you're rebelling, which means you'll all be—"

Usopp noticed the absence of the fishman chasing him and turned around, noticing how he seemed to be targeting the villagers. He quickly placed a marble inside the small pouch of his slingshot and shot the fishman, "Flame star!" the ammunition impacted against the fishman, setting the hybrid on fire. The fishman collapsed on the floor, burning out the flames and grasping his face, "Don't forget! Your opponent is me!"

The fishman, after burning out all the flames, got up and immediately charged after Usopp again, causing him to scream out in terror, "FINE, SINCE YOU WANT TO BE KILLED SO BADLY, ALLOW ME TO MAKE IT QUICK!"

●ω●

Arlong got up from the broken debris, a wicked grin on his face as he stepped towards his comrades, all of which had halted their battling against the Strawhats when he took a single step. The manta ray spoke up, "Arlong, I already asked you not to fight."

Arlong spread his arms wide, as if inviting them for a hug, but that just seemed unlikely, "I ain't gonna fight, but…"

Luffy, after hearing those words, immediately scowled. He wasn't going to fight? Then he just had to provoke him. He charged towards the fishman, preparing to hit him with a powerful punch, "I'm gonna kick your _ass_!" he said, throwing his punch attempting to hit Arlong's face, but the fishman simply cocked his head and evaded the attack. Instead, Arlong caught his wrist, pulling Luffy near him.

"Do you seriously think you can win against _us_?"

Sanji and Zoro smirked, the blonde responding with another question, "And what if we do?"

Luffy growled at the fishman, attempting to free himself from the others grip, "You _bet_ I think so, you idiot!" he tried wringing his wrist around, "Now let go of my hand!"

"Seems like he has something to say." Zoro said.

Arlong grinned wickedly, pulling Luffy high in the air with a stronger grip, causing the neko to hiss at him, "No, no…" he said, "Why don't we play this game? Devil fruit users are said to be unable to swim." As soon as he said that, he brought Luffy over the water, the neko immediately set into a small panic.

Zoro and Sanji lost their cool composure and were taken aback by the sudden change of tactic. Immediately, they were on the offense. Luffy, being the one held in the air, also took on the offensive side. He brought his hand back and attempted to punch the fishman with a 'Gomu Gomu no Pistol', but he immediately winced in pain, screaming in agony as the sawfish chewed on his hand, his teeth digging into his wrist.

Luffy bared his sharper canines and bit down on the fishman's exposed arm, the taste of blood powerful in his mouth. The fishman cried out in pain, surprised by the sharp pain a supposed human could inflict on him by biting. Arlong immediately yanked off the neko from his arm, the red liquid dripping from his arm. He attempted to throw Luffy into the water, but Luffy stretched his arms and managed to grip on a pillar, bringing himself back on land. The other two Strawhat pirates sighed in relief, mildly pleased by the outcome.

 _Good thing nekos have sharp teeth as well…_ Zoro thought grimly. _If he hadn't, he'd probably be down there._ He sighed.

Luffy sighed as well, panting a bit and taking a look at his hand which was bleeding profusely. He wiped the blood on his hoodie, the red camouflaging quickly with his clothing. Arlong snarled at Luffy, staring at the neko with pure anger evident in his eyes, "You…" he growled. Luffy growled back. The other fishmen looked surprised, having heard their captain yell out in pain from a human bite.

Zoro turned to Luffy who was jumping off the pillar, landing on the broken pavement with a soft thud, "Luffy, you okay?" he asked, watching dots of blood squeeze out from the shark teeth marks on his wrist.

Luffy nodded, "Yeah. That bastard bit me on my hand." He glared at the sawfish man, "So I bit him back." He said, baring his sharp canines that were tainted a smeared scarlet, clear due to his saliva. "He tastes like raw fish."

Sanji clicked his tongue in distaste, "Luffy, I didn't need to know that." He was sure the swordsman didn't mind, since he was a cat as well and had most likely eaten a raw fish for all he knew, but he was a chef and raw fish that was still living shouldn't be going in someone's mouth. He knew some chefs did it, where they offered a live, small animal to a customer so they could eat it, but he preferred the rational side of cooking.

Luffy smiled, "Sorry Sanji."

Arlong stared at Luffy, glaring at his smile which bared _his_ blood, "Those teeth aren't human." He darkened his gaze, _"What are you?"_

Luffy glared back at the man, "I already told you. I'm a pirate." Zoro and Sanji looked at him, wondering if he was doing it on purpose or if he really thought Arlong was asking the same question again. Knowing him, it would usually be the latter, but Luffy seemed completely pissed at the fishman, staring at him with a gaze that usually promised suffering pain. Something inside them told them that it was more likely the former, since a confused Luffy _did not_ look like that.

The sawfish man bared his teeth, revealing his own bloodied teeth, "I'm not talking about your occupation. You seem to already know that."

The jaguar stared at him blankly, as if he were arguing with himself whether or not he should tell or not. After a bit of silence, Luffy responded, "A neko. What does it matter to you? You obviously think your race is superior than ours."

Arlong frowned, "A mere _cat_? You're right. I shouldn't care about your race, but you're enough of a pest to make me want to kill you." He looked at Zoro, "Your friend there is one, as well." His eyes dimmed, "Hachi." The octopus responded immediately with a 'yes', "Take care of that one. To think that a race such as _this_ dared to fight beings far superior."

Hacchan pumped his three pairs of fists together, the manta ray already having his eyes on Sanji while Arlong immediately wanted to snap Luffy's neck (although that was impossible because of his elasticity). Zoro threw Wado's sheath on the ground a good distance away from them, so that it wouldn't get caught in the possible damage. Sanji hunched over a bit, his arms stuffed in the pockets of his black dress pants. Luffy faced Arlong, the two having a staring contest. For a moment, Luffy's eyes turned into thin slits, before returning to their original, round orbs.

"LET'S DO THIS!" the three Strawhats yelled.

●ω●

Luffy felt the anger around Arlong radiate as if he were a volcano erupting dangerous, black gas fumes. The jaguar let his hands clutch tightly, pausing proper circulation through his knuckles. As much as the fishman seemed to just want to rip him apart with his damned sharp teeth, Luffy could tell the sawfish man was debating something with himself, and the neko had a good idea of what it could be, if the glare the fishman gave when he observed the bite mark he had was any clue.

Luffy grit his teeth and glared at the fishman back, blowing out air from his nose and feeling his tail bristle upon contact from a cool breeze. He unclenched his fists and popped his aching knuckles, before pulling them back into fists, "Stop thinking already! If you really think you're far 'superior' than us, then just get started already!" the neko charged at the fishman as he said that, pulling his fist back in an attempt to get a normal punch in, but the fishman simply tilted his head to the side—evading the attack—and grabbed Luffy's arm, swinging him off to the side and sending the pirate sprawling on the ground and crashing on one of the pillars of the park.

The raven-haired boy quickly stood up however, the counter barely having any effect on him since blunt attacks and objects didn't harm him. A few small stones dug into him however, but his elasticity prevented maximum pain.

He charged again, but as he neared, Arlong snickered and side-stepped the attack. It was undeniable that Luffy felt annoyed, since he could clearly read the mockery written on his enemy's face, and chose at that moment to let out an exasperated huff.

"There's really no point of you fighting me. Clearly our races are showing what we're capable of, and so far yours has yet to show any difference from a normal human's." He chuckled, "All you really are are pitiful humans with an extra set of ears and a useless appendage, while we, _superior_ fishmen are far more advanced, as it is in our ability to thrive underwater in the ocean." He glared at Luffy with a mocking gaze, "Unlike you monkeys."

Luffy clicked his tongue, "What does superiority matter anyway?" the neko said, air quoting 'superiority', "As long as someone wins, then they're the winner, race or not."

Arlong frowned, "You seem to not understand how the world works." He grinned, baring all of his teeth, "Let me give you a quick lesson."

●ω●

Zoro faced Hacchan, wielding his white katana with confidence. His tail flicked from side to side, clearly from agitation from the lack of patience Zoro held, "Don't think your head and eight limbs will still be in one piece after I'm through with you, octopus!"

Hacchan laughed loudly, "What a fun game this'll be!"

Zoro growled and charged at the octopus fishman, bringing his sword back with one hand, "I'll end this in five seconds!" Hacchan hunched over, once again in the same previous position he was in before spitting out bucket loads of ink everywhere on the ground. Zoro immediately evaded the ink attack, side-stepping in a way that flipped his body horizontally in the air so he could still slash the octopus if he positioned himself correctly. He brought his katana behind him and quickly swung at Hacchan's head with the intentions of decapitating him, but before Wado made it to the octopi's neck, he dodged and Zoro slashed at two of the white cones for hair on his head swiftly.

As he skidded behind the octopus, he huffed, disappointed. Hacchan wailed in surprise and seemingly in horror as well, "Nyuu! My hair!" he bent backwards with all of his arms crossed, "Why you…! But…" Zoro cocked his head to the side a bit, "I'll forgive you since it's only hair! The important thing is I'm still alive!"

Friction worked against the tiger's feet and stopped him from sliding on the floor any further, "Oh? Is that so? Thanks." He said sarcastically, but wasn't completely evident due to his bored and low tone. Despite the tiger's steady resolve, it had become evident that the neko had gotten tired after his somewhat effective counter before. He cursed at himself. He needed to improve his stamina badly, or else he was going to end up in situations where he simply couldn't swing his swords anymore due to exhaustion.

Hacchan turned to Zoro, spreading his arms, "Did you know, Roronoa Zoro, that I'm quite strong against swordsmen?" the neko twitched his ears, "Do you understand what I mean?" he asked.

Zoro raised his lone katana above his head and charged, aiming to get a good hit on the fishman's forehead, "Like hell I do!"

The octopus fishman poised his arms in front of him, as if he were the goalkeeper of a soccer game, "Octopus Three Continuous Naked Sword Catching Technique!"

Zoro frowned and as soon as the three pairs of hands were about to clamp on his sword, he swung down and cut the top of the fishman's head, blood splattering on the ground. The fishman was obviously pained and uncaring that his defense had failed, since he let a stream of thick tears slide down his cheeks, his hand covering the wound, "OWWWW!"

The neko growled, "I don't have time to play around with you!" he gritted his teeth and stared at the fishman continue to whine, "This is getting ridiculous…" he flicked his tail and charged again, this time with the intentions of slicing his waist, "Go to hell already, you octopus bastard!"

"Tako-Hachi Number 9…" Zoro swung forward, but blinked when he felt no hard contact with his katana nor the bubbles of blood. As he looked where he had supposedly cut his enemy, he was flustered when his opponent had disappeared. He sniffed once and immediately caught the smell of raw octopus, and felt himself heat up in anger when he found him at the top of the pillar, using his suckers as a means of sticking onto the structure.

The neko couldn't help but glare at the enemy he was forced to put up with, and he swore he could hear himself snap, "The hell do you think you're playing at! Get your ass down this instant!" he bared his sharper canines, and could feel his eyes slit up for a moment. He was losing his patience, and he suddenly had a craving for octopus-filled takoyaki. He saved that thought for later. He would ask the cook if he really started to crave some, "You trying to buy time or something?!"

Hacchan ignored his question and asked with one of his own, "I've heard that you use three swords, so why are you only using one?!"

The tiger remembered his fight with Mihawk and how he had completely underestimated the 'Greatest Swordsman in the World', but felt no obligation to tell the _honorable deaths_ of his other two katana. Honestly, he felt almost naked without other two swords strapped with Wado or in his hands and mouth, but he quickly came up with a more suitable answer in his situation which he found fit, since he would still do the same thing had he still had his other two katana, "That's because using one sword is still more than enough to beat you!"

The fishman snarled, but by the flustered air around him, the tiger knew that even his enemy had admitted it to himself as well, "Shut up! I haven't fought seriously yet!" he grinned, and the air around him suddenly vanished. Zoro was a bit surprised by the quick change, and wondered if what he was feeling before was just an act. If it was, then he was definitely going to make the fishman suffer for wasting his time, "There's a clear reason why human swordsmen can never hope to beat me."

Zoro's eyes widened as a jolt of pain shot through his spinal area and his torso, causing him to shiver. The tiger suddenly felt numb around the area, and his legs gave in. He found it ironic how he thought before that his stamina was the one to blame for his sudden exhaustion. When he had paused to take a short breather when he had cut off part of the fishman's hair, he had caught sight of Sanji watching him, probably knowing what was going on, and now for neglecting his chances of healing, he was starting to feel the outcome. It felt horrible.

"And the reason why humans can't hope to beat me is—" Hacchan halted though as the tiger fell onto the ground. He could feel all eyes land on him, Luffy's and Sanji's concerned stares and yelps boring into his back. _Great_ , he thought, _the wound opened…_ he eyed underneath him, the movement of forcing his eyes to look lower giving him a nauseous headache that he couldn't control, but even as he shifted his head a bit to the side to get better mouthfuls of air, he could feel his bandages dampen with something that was definitely not the water from the sea. He could feel it dribbling to his sides, and if he were to get up, he was sure a puddle of red would be left behind,

"Nyu?!"

"Zoro!" Luffy called after him, taking a step towards his friend but felt a shark-like grin bore into him, immediately setting off trigger that sent a cold shiver down his spine. As he turned around, he was quickly met with a dull blue fist in front of him, a few centimeters away from his own face. Before he could react though, he was punched a good distance away from his enemy.

The neko glared at the fishman, but despite his growing distaste for the 'man', he still wanted to make sure his crewmate was okay. As he glanced at the sawfish man and making sure that there was a semi-wide distance away, he took the chance and looked at his swordsman, who was weakly attempting to get up. He could hear Sanji yelling about confirming his suspicions, and hoped that this distraction wouldn't prove to be the blonde's downfall, or at least give a free hit to his opponent. He knew Sanji was strong, he had seen most of his fight with Gin, but despite having watched some of it, he didn't know if his new crewmate was in a good enough shape to fight, either.

The octopus fishman took it as his chance to defeat the swordsman and commenced to punch the pillar he had suctioned to, shattering it but jumping off before it completely crumbled. As he landed further away from Zoro, he posed with his arms positioned outwards, the rocks beginning to slip from their crumbling holds, "Meet your doom as you get crushed, Roronoa Zoro!"

The tiger growled and quickly pushed himself up, the octopus facing away from him. Just because he had fallen didn't mean that it was over, not yet. He picked up Wado to keep it away from the crumbling rubble and grabbed the hem of Hacchan's shirt, throwing him back to his previous spot. With perfect timing, the enemy was thrown underneath the crashing stones and boulders, clouds of thick, white dust covering the fallen fishman. "Why don't you just get crushed instead?" he said, walking a safe distance away before collapsing down on the ground again. His blood had yet to taint the cream colored pavement, but he knew that if he walked any more or continued any strenuous task, then his wound would definitely open and spill freely again, "Damn it… of all the times, why now…?!"

He closed his eyes, praying to the known gods above, that _purring_ would be what would save him. He knew, judging from their attitudes, that they weren't going to simply leave him be, despite already having fallen. He needed to heal up as much as he could and close up the slash on his chest as if he were working with magical medicine. Any sore and ripped muscles and tendons would be massaged by invisible hands and palms, his wound on his chest would be no more once the interior of his upper torso and waist would finally begin to heal from the inside out, closing the wound and only leaving fresh blood in its wake.

As much as he hated doing it, and as much as it embarrassed him (since people always saw him as the tough, scary and intimidating guy, they would judge him differently if he ever started to do _that_ ), he knew that if he wanted a second—more _yielding—_ positive outcome, then he would have to do what his instincts told him to do. He clutched his eyes shut and coiled his tail around his leg, biting his lips before giving in, and commenced the low grumbling sound in his throat.

Sanji cursed, looking at his wounded comrade, "I knew something was up when he acted normal even after receiving those wounds." He bit onto his cigarette, "That moron…!" before he knew it though, he found himself blasted away from a swift punch from his opponent; he could feel his organs in his stomach area hurl around like floppy sacks of sugar, and no doubt about it, the contents were spilling.

He crashed into the fencing of the park, the walls crumbling down as he burst through the rock. He could hear the fishman's voice, probably mocking him in some way, but his ears rung with a deafening ' _shiiiii'._ A cold, damp liquid ran down over his eye, his body facing the sky as he took in deep breaths. He could hear the villagers and the two bounty hunters gasp in surprise, their shouts loud but incoherent for the cook. He cursed. He really should've been paying more attention. No matter, he was still not down, and he wouldn't in this place.

●ω●

Luffy gawked at the sight of Sanji flying away, his arms and legs tensing at the sight, "Sanji!" he could smell blood from his cook's direction, and it was really starting to bother him.

"Those two have been taken care of, Arlong. Once you defeat that one, what should we do with Roronoa Zoro?" the manta ray fishman asked his captain with crossed arms, staring intently at Luffy who glared back at him.

The neko chewed the inside of his mouth, his tail whipping from side to side. He glanced at Zoro, perking his ears when he heard a soft rumbling sound emit from him, and immediately he felt like grinning. Zoro had yet to give in, and he was even going out of his way to _purr_ , which from past experiences, the jaguar could tell that the swordsman was not fond of the action.

"Just throw him into the sea, couldn't even put up a fight… how boring."

Luffy glared at Arlong, grinning, "You've still got me to tussle with!" he faced the fishman in a combat stance, prepared to continue their fight.

Arlong glared at him, baring his sharp teeth as he flicked his head to the side, staring at the rubble from Hacchan's fall, "Hey, Hachi! Wake up! How long are you going to be sleeping?"

Immediately, the octopus emerged from the debris and large boulders, holding six sabers in each of his hands.

Luffy growled, getting Arlong's attention with a confused and amused glance, "What is it? Haven't you learnt your lesson, yet? It is undeniable in anyone's eyes that our race is far more capable than yours. You have yet to land a hit on me, and both of your friends are down. I'm sure the human that ran off was already killed. _Humans_ and whatever _you are_ are no match for fishme—" his speech was cut short though when Luffy slammed a hard kick to the saw shark's stomach, kicking away the enemy into the main building.

"Shut up about species! If you're so obsessed with superiority, then at least study what we are!" Luffy huffed at the crumbling spot he had kicked Arlong through, the fishman standing upright with his abdomen badly bruised, thin streams of blood cascading down the fishman's jaws. Luffy poised high and glared at him, "Me and Zoro are nekos, and if you really think we're weaker than you, we'll just have to show you the painful truth!" Luffy charged forward again, morphing his human nails into a sharper, feline-shape. He lunged at the fishman and clawed the blue skin, deep cuts forming, causing Arlong to grunt in pain and annoyance, punching Luffy hard on the stomach and sending him sprawling on the ground close to the water.

"You annoying _cat_ , you don't honestly believe that you can beat a fishman, do you? It goes against the laws of nature!" He laughed, and the neko couldn't help but scoff at the idea of it 'going against nature'. In fact, he was sure that cats ate fish. He sure did. "Us fishman are the ocean's creations, and the ocean is the queen of nature itself! Going against us is like a snail going up against a bird!"

The neko sighed. This man really wasn't going to understand, was he? He hardened his stare at stood up, having not felt the punch that the fishman had blown him. He felt like lecturing him more, but knew that the fishman would not give in to his beliefs. If words couldn't do the job, then actions could. He charged forward again, sending a series of punches, kicks and scratches, a few landing on the fishman as he countered back, biting, punching and slamming.

As they separated from the force from the barrage of attacks, Luffy could hear his first mate halt his purring, slow and rough movements replacing the deep and ragged rhythm from before as the swordsman worked his way up to stand up. He grinned. If this fishman really was ignorant to how powerful a neko could get, then he was going to get bottle-fed the retched news.

●ω●

Zoro purred, listening to the boulders and rocks shift as Hacchan emerged from them, wielding a sword in each hand. He slid open his eyelids, seeing the octopus man cross two of the swords wearing an angry glare that he found odd on his face. "You've really pissed me off! I'm going to butcher you! Did you know that aside from one man, I, Hachi of the 6 swords style, am the number one swordsman in Fishman Island?! Even if the heavens were to be flipped over, you would have no chance of beating me!" Zoro scrunched his eyebrows, _if the heavens were to be flipped over? How was that supposed to work?_ "NYUU! Nyu?"

The enemy who fought Sanji looked at Hacchan, "Who're you trying to fight, Hachi?"

Zoro smirked at the comment. They thought he was already down, didn't they? Well, as Luffy had screamed out earlier, they were going to show them how nekos really fought. He steadily stood up, proud of his healing work that had soothed his muscles and sealed up the cut fairly well. If he were to be hit there, no doubt about it would it open freely again, but for now, swift movements and his own attacks weren't a problem to him.

"Six swords style? Don't make me laugh. Just what's so great about that?" he reached for Wado, hoisting himself up as he smirked hungrily at Hacchan, "Let me tell you something, you little octopus! I've got a man I have to meet no matter what… and until I meet him…" his tail bristled at the thought, fueling the energy circling his body like wildfire, "Not even the Grim reaper can take my life away!" he turned to the two bounty hunters near the broken gates of the park with his hungry smirk, though they seemed to be completely unfazed by the look, "Yosaku! Johnny! Lend me your swords!" the two exchanged glances with each other before throwing their swords at him, "Allow me to show you my three swords style."

Hacchan brought his six blades forward, calling out Zoro's death while the manta ray behind him mused out loud, surprised by the fact that he was still alive. The tiger almost snorted. He hadn't even been hit once by the octopus. The reason he fell definitely wasn't because of the fishman, but from a previous, more _worthy_ battle. As if he'd be brought down by his current enemy. He himself had a better chance of taking himself down, and it had even been shown before.

But, despite purring, he still felt a tad woozy, the word around him slightly hazy, _Damn it… I feel like I'm going to pass out any moment now. I though moving around a bit might lower my fever but it's only gotten worse…!_ He mentally cursed as himself. Of course purring could only do so much, but he wasn't half-assed to let his neko abilities take care of the whole job. If he was going to become the greatest swordsman and be the best first mate for Luffy, then he'd have to do his part as well, and he felt no regret doing so, neither was he the type of person to let luck charm his way through. If anything, he preferred it this way, because he would feel prideful of his own achievements, and not those of his body.

"B-Brother! We already threw our swords!"

"Didn't you aks for our swords?! Catch them!"

He heard his 'brothers' warn him of their swords, but he wasn't clueless. He could feel the air on both sides of him shift rapidly, his ears picking up on the sound of cutting air. Once he felt this, he stripped the black bandana from his shoulder and tied the article around his head, the dinging of his earrings hitting each other muted as his cat ears were covered.

"I'll show you the vast gap in skill that's unsurpassable for a human with only two arms! The six swords style that can only be used by having six arms and a supple body!"

The tiger concentrated on the air around him, knowing that if he missed a single detail, it could end humiliatingly for him. He heard his brothers warn him once more, and he took it as his cue to be ready to slice. As the octopus man charged at him, flailing his swords wildly, Zoro reached behind him and grabbed the hilts of the swords, bending his body past three swords stabbed at him, his loose body twisting unnaturally for a human as he poised his three swords in a specific manner.

"Three swords style…"

Hacchan looked flustered for a second before attacking again in a rapid barrage of stabs and slices, "I'd like to see you try to take on my barrage with only three swords!" the attacks continued, the tiger twisting and turning as he took advantage of three swords and defending against the attacking blades with them.

As the fishman started to finish his barrage, he looked absolutely terrified as he saw Zoro swiftly slide behind him, "Tourou Nagashi!" the neko skidded to a stop behind the octopus man, for a moment complete and shocked silence overtook the area, the soft rustle of leaves and grass muted, the chirps from birds zipped tightly as if their songs would be a perish theme to anyone who heard them. The silence was interrupted by a disgusting splatter, and behind the tiger, the fishman's chest was sliced open, red liquid painting underneath him and dotting spots further away, some of the droplets that fell into the water turned into a sickly purple hue.

Zoro heaved a sigh, resisting the urge to pant by keeping his lips sealed shut, but ended up breathing heavily through his nostrils.

He turned though when he saw his fishman had yet to fall, blocking out the praise he was being showered in from the bounty hunters, "You've _really_ made me mad now!" he lengthened the 'really', emphasizing the hatred he was gathering for the three sword style swordsman, "I swear I'll kill you!" he seethed, "Just think about it! Logically, there's no way you could beat my six swords style when you only have three!"

Zoro scoffed, "Logically…? Seems like you've made a big error in your calculation." _What are you burdened with? What do you desire at the limits of your strength?_ He remembered that moment, his fight against Mihawk did a number on him in countless ways, "I may only have three swords, but the weight of our swords are completely different!"

Hacchan straightened his swords, "The weight? You mean to say your swords are heavier than mine? Don't be stupid! You may not realize it just by looking at them, but each of my swords weigh 300 Kilograms! They're far heavier than any swords that you puny humans use!"

Zoro blew out air from his mouth, "I have nothing to say to an idiot like you…"

"Six swords style: Octopus Pot Stance!" he positioned his swords so that the tip of each one touched in front of him, then stabbed towards the neko, the tiger blocking it with his own, "Take this! New Year's Octopus Opener!" the fishman swung each of his swords outwards, causing Zoro's own swords to be lunged outwards as well, leaving his chest and abdomen completely exposed to the enemy.

 _Shi…_

Hacchan obviously noticed the opening and took advantage of it as soon as possible, "Body Slam!" he slammed his whole body on the neko's chest like a bull, blood spurting out of the tiger's mouth and nose. He felt more pressure go onto his wound, pushing him back until he was literally sent flying high in the sky. "I won't give you a safe landing! Six swords style ultimate technique!" he spun his swords upwards like a tornado, making it impossible for anyone to escape without getting sliced, "Six swords Waltz! Touch it and you'll be mincemeat! Time to dice you up!"

Zoro cracked his eyes open, his wound bleeding freely again. As he fell towards the spinning blades, his found his grip around his swords suddenly go cold, as if he were touching the freezing steel instead of the warm, leathery hilt. He could feel the environment around him expand as his eyes changed into thin slits, his tail bristling and curling in on itself from the sudden cold chill running through his whole body. No, it wasn't fear. It wasn't anger. It was his body instantly reacting to the wound now bleeding freely on his chest, his instincts kicking forward and thrusting a new cord into a different socket—not his normal, sane socket, but instead the power filled, blood-lusting socket of the _kyōbō._

His eyes glazed over, as if being covered in a thin layer of frosted ice, as he fell towards the spinning offense. His grip around his swords tightened, and his eyes shot open as he shot himself down into the blades, passing through each one and ending up touching the floor next to the unsuspecting enemy. He skidded back a step and as soon as Hacchan realized where Zoro was, the tiger immediately attacked, bringing his three swords towards the enemy with a blinded, cold sight. His swords immediately made contact, cutting the palms of the octopus and another, much wider, cut on his chest.

Hacchan released his hold of each of his swords as he yowled in pain, unable to grip neither his chest or his hands as they immediately stung upon contact, "Ack! It's cold!" he said as he attempted to soothe his wounds. The swords on the floor glazed in a light blue tint, as if they were slowly freezing to the brim.

The tiger turned around and observed his enemy, watching as the octopus fishman shivered noticeably to any eye, both from the pain and cold his swords had inflicted on him. He slightly gnawed on Wado's hilt, careful not to bite into it too hard—he didn't want to damage his important katana. He avoided using his sharper canines, but realized that they had lengthened in size. He hadn't noticed.

"I really, really, _really_ can't forgive you anymore! It's time to finish you off!" Hacchan reached down and grabbed the six swords, waving them around as he let out a loud battle cry.

The tiger, now facing his opponent, studied the similar wounds on their chests, bleeding profusely on their chests as they heaved powerful breaths. He looked at his own, the diagonal slice completely hidden from his bandages that had now been bled through into a painful yet gorgeous dark red. While the cut on his enemy was placed differently, in the shape of a cross that strangely resembled the red cross you'd find in a hospital (especially since it was red, too. Strange.), he found it almost soothing to his soul and wound, knowing that his enemy was dealing with double the pain than he.

He could already feel his wound patch itself up, but that could've simply been his imagination. His body felt so numb from the cold that he wasn't sure if he was dying or not, or if his wound was opening rather than closing. His hands and fingers felt like they had been frostbitten, and the tip of his double set of ears felt cold, as if he were standing in a winter island without earmuffs nor gloves. It felt strange, since he could tell he was in a warm climate with the sun shining bright above them all, but his body confused him when all he could feel was the cold creeping into him, as if someone stuffed ice into the back of his shirt, the ice melting into freezing water that would run down his spine. Yet, it felt so much colder than that. He huffed out air, expecting to feel the warmth of his breath cuddle his face, but was instead met with a dusty mist, expulsing out between the thin gaps between his teeth and the hilt of his sword.

His eyes widened considerably, not having expected cold air to wash his lower face, but dismissed it as his fever getting to him. Yeah, that made sense. His fever was simply messing with his whole body, causing him to believe that he was becoming the fable Jack Frost or something. Before he could question his situation any longer—which he felt oddly correlative with, despite being completely flustered about his current condition—he noticed his opponent prepare an attack.

He was confused, no doubt about it, but he was still amazed by the durability of the octopus. The tiger guessed that octopus skin was harder and thicker than he thought, unlike a squishy fish. Hacchan redid the attack before his Waltz, a hard glare trying to bore through his own eyes, but the thin glaze that covered the tiger's own seemed to protect him from any intimidation, the glare nothing more than an empty threat that the neko saw through. His eyes glazed in something so similar to frost, it prevented any actual and perfect sight of his surroundings. The building next to him was a mere, hazy structure, the water looked like it was covered in thin ice, the octopus sported skin tinted slightly blue…

He really was going insane, wasn't he? Because whatever what was going on with his sight and body, it was definitely like no fever he'd ever experienced.

"Six swords style: Octopus Pot Stance!" Hacchan charged towards him, and Zoro's blood suddenly felt freezing, the cold liquid rushing through his limbs and chest and freezing his brain similar to a brain freeze that didn't come from a cold beverage or dessert. Despite it being clearly cold inside, he felt as if magma was running through his veins, pumping his arms and legs with energy that the cold temperature seemed to numb out.

And yet, even when the heat coursed through his whole body, he still felt cold, as if the freezing temperatures were working alongside the heat. It felt like the cold had planned this all along, and he started to have second thoughts if this really was a common fever.

 _Whatever this is, I can't afford to die. My wounds are practically nothing now, but, in order to beat that abnormally strong Hawkeye…_ he crouched down, preparing his own attack. His arms crossed over themselves with his swords poised high and his head ducked low, his white katana off to the side, "Demon…" he charged forward, running towards the six blades.

"New Year's…"

 _I can't afford to be normal either!_ He uncrossed his swords on Hacchan's own, ignoring the sudden cold that chilled his spine, running down to his toes and fingers to the tip of his ears, "Slash!" Hacchan's swords were completely broken, bits of the blades sprawling and dotting the ground as the larger pieces littered around them with satisfying 'clinks'. Zoro looked up, grinning as he saw the octopus take many steps back, holding his chest with a wounded hand as his enemy literally turned blue. He expected it was from fear or astonishment, but as soon as he was met with the shivering limbs, he suspected something else.

He smirked, the gasps released from his visible in cloudy puffs in front of him. _No way this is a fever…_ he studied his enemy as the blood seeping through his clothes seemed to still, dots of frost sprinkled on them and below, keeping the liquid in place, _if the cold I feel is inflicted on him as well…_ he felt like snorting. When he said he couldn't afford to be normal, he wasn't expecting it to go to this extent. Simply breaking the swords was fine enough, but freezing blood wasn't part of the plan. No matter, he found it useful.

He raised his head and glared at the octopus with a deadly stare, "Now do you understand the difference in the weight of our swords? I hope you're satisfied, octopus…!" he outstretched his arms and looked down at the ground, glittering pieces of steel shimmering the light's reflection. "Tatsu…" the air around him grew cold, and now that he realized it, the bits of steel were suddenly covered in frostbite, the ice spreading to the water and covering it in a cracking layer of frost. His teeth grit onto Wado's hilt a bit harder, his canines growing and shortening that he found completely annoying. Each time it was lengthened, he felt like he was biting too hard, but as they shortened, he felt the complete opposite. His body was really getting on his nerves now, and since he wasn't fond of the idea of harming himself, he decided the octopus man in front of him could do the job of releasing his annoyance. Just a bit. "Maki!" he swung his swords in a circular motion with the cooperation of his spine and waist, allowing him to do a few three-hundred sixties before completing the attack, which brought upon Hacchan a twister of spiraling wind, his own blades and the sharpness of the wind from the harsh cold cutting him up and no doubt about it opening all his deadly wounds.

His enemy was sent sprawling in the air, mumbling a phrase of incredulity. Zoro turned to Luffy, who was grinning at him with a satisfied laugh. The cold air surrounding him seemed to warm up a bit, and he was relieved to say the least. His eyes lost their haziness and his fingers could feel the blood coursing through them, as if he had been neglecting circulation. The frost dotting the ground and on the blades quickly started to melt, as if he was their source for surviving, which, in actuality, from his previous experience and body temperature, didn't seem too far-fetched.

"Damn it Luffy, I did my part, go ahead and finish yours!" he gripped the bandages on his chest, soaking his hand with blood. His eyelids dropped low, _So during the whole fight, I was only bleeding more… Damnit… my body got so numb that I couldn't even tell…_ he cursed and thought about purring, but he'd had enough and he wasn't sure if it would do much anymore—not that it had a limit, but the numbness had reached his throat to the point where it felt sore.

He let himself collapse, not sure what to do other than rest.

So instead, he looked to the side, noticing the manta ray man approach him with his arm raised high, positioned so that he could karate chop the bleeding swordsman, "How dare you cut down Ha—" Zoro heard familiar footsteps quickly approaching them, and sighed. It was about time he had gotten up again.

The blonde kicked the large protruding fin of the manta ray fishman, preventing him from landing a hit on the tiger neko. "You sure did punch me back pretty far." Sanji said, taking a step back behind Zoro, the neko between him and the fishman.

"There's actually a human in east Blue that can live after taking one of my punches?" the fishman pondered out loud.

Sanji grin, and Zoro got a good look at the chef's face, which wasn't in the best shape it could be, with a thick trail of blood running down from his forehead to his chin, his nose bleeding and his gums dyed red from the red liquid in his mouth, "I'm sure there're more than just me. Especially at a certain restaurant."

The manta ray grimaced, "It seems I'm being underestimated."

●ω●

Luffy punched his palm, "Looks like one of your guys are down and Sanji is still going strong." He grinned as he faced Arlong, who was anything but pleased at the loss of one of his brethren.

His eyes lidded for a second though, thinking back when Zoro was-way through finishing his enemy. The area around him had suddenly grown cold, and the look in his eyes was so similar to his own, yet so different. Zoro seemed to also have a good control of his body, and that would explain the lack of overall power when he was in _that_ mode, but even at this distance, he could still feel the freezing temperatures; it really did feel like he was standing in snow without protection. Glancing at the floor underneath his crewmates and the fishman, he caught sight of water on the floor next to the steel shards.

Water from melted ice.

 _So Zoro really is different from me. Well, if it gets too hot, now I know who to ask for help!_ He grinned at the thought. "Come on fish guy! I'm still going to beat your sorry ass!"

 **Well, that took longer than expected to publish. Whelp, I hope you enjoyed it either way.**

 **Anyway, I'd like your opinion about something (which is more like to see if you approve or not rather than an actual, justified opinion, but whatever). I was planning to combine the first chapters from the beginning since some range from 2,000-7,000, and thought, 'Well, it looks damn annoying with so little words in a story that now has a range of 10,000-17,000 words,' so I'm planning on merging them together, perhaps editing a few and so on.**

 **I'd probably still do it either way, but, I guess I just wanted you guys to know.**

 **By the way, I seriously need to do something for Zoro's birthday which is coming up in a few days. What do you guys think? A special chapter just for him? Zoro deserves one, or at least something special.**

 **Thank you for reading, (One) piece out!**


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